Perspective and clinical relevance of intrapulmonary lymph node retrieval: response to the editorial by Tantraworasin and colleagues and the editorial by Marc Riquet and colleagues

Academic discussion about clinical relevance of intrapulmonary lymph node retrieval will help the community to increase the awareness of this easy-to-be-neglected area in our practice. Dr. Tantraworasin et al. (1) and Dr. Riquet et al. (2) both contribute their thoughts on this important topic. As they mentioned in the editorials, these lymph nodes deserve special attention because they occupy a unique place not only with regard to the prognosis of the NSCLCs when they are metastatic but also because of their anatomical and pathogenic characteristics (2). These comments will surely encourage more and more investigation around this topic.