I did not mean to imply that multifocal lung cancer can't go to the lymph nodes. I was questioning whether it was a case of multifocal lung cancer because only multiple lymph nodes were mentioned, not multiple growths (or lesions or nodules) in the lobe removed by the lobectomy. I used to confuse nodules and nodes when I was first diagnosed. Although anything is possible (I'm quoting more than one of my doctors with that statement!), patients with multifocal lung cancer "are frequently node-negative and without distant metastases despite multiple lesions present. " (quote extracted from the description of the Mayo Clinical Trial "Treatment of Multifocal Lung Cancer", NCT01946100).