Prospective preoperative mediastinal lymph node staging by integrated positron emission tomography–computerised tomography in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer☆

Abstract

The sensitivity of integrated (18)FDG PET-CT for mediastinal lymph node staging in patients selected for surgery is low. When positive mediastinal lymph nodes are detected, invasive mediastinal staging must be performed. On the other hand, the specificity is high: patients with negative integrated (18)FDG PET-CT can be operated upon without invasive mediastinal staging.