Preoperative CT examination for staging of mediastinal lymph-nodes in patients with (operable) non-small cell lung cancer.

In a prospective study of 100 and a retrospective study of 90 patients with non small cell lung cancer, the usefulness of CT in the preoperative staging of mediastinal lymph nodes was examined. The long-term prognostic value of CT was also investigated. Our results suggest that, using 1.5 cm as a criterion of size for malignancy, CT can be useful in the selection of patients for mediastinoscopy. CT can always help the surgeon in the mediastinal exploration but the long-term prognostic value is limited after the surgical-pathologic diagnosis has been made.