Staging techniques for lung cancer.

Abstract

In summary, noninvasive clinical staging techniques aid in stratifying patients into similar prognostic and therapeutic categories. Every patient with presumed non-small cell lung cancer should undergo a thorough history and physical examination, basic routine laboratory testing, PA and lateral chest radiographs, and chest CT scan with upper abdominal cuts to allow evaluation of the liver and adrenals. Recently, FDG-PET scanning has shown tremendous promise in the noninvasive evaluation of the primary tumor, nodal involvement, and metastatic [table: see text] disease. Although valuable, clinical staging has limitations, and when pathologic confirmation of lung cancer is required, minimally invasive techniques, such as bronchoscopy, TTNA, thoracoscopy, anterior mediastinotomy, and cervical and extended mediastinoscopy, may be valuable and simple ways of obtaining tissue.