ABSTRACT
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in men and women. While overall
survival rates remain dismal, survival for early stage disease approaches 70%. Expedient,
accurate staging is vital to ensure timely resection of all potentially curable disease.
Conversely, accurate staging is important in preventing unnecessary surgery. While
a negative clinical evaluation has a high negative predictive value, many clinicians
routinely order conventional imaging to exclude distant metastases. In this article,
five case vignettes are presented to demonstrate the international system for staging
lung cancer, including the most recent modifications. Various tumor characteristics
and patterns of lymph node involvement are explored to demonstrate the subtleties
of staging. The accuracy of various diagnostic modalities in the evaluation for mediastinal
and distant metastasis is discussed.
KEYWORD
Lung cancer - staging - metastasis
