Is central lung tumour location really predictive for occult mediastinal nodal disease in (suspected) non-small-cell lung cancer staged cN0 on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography?

Abstract

The prevalence of occult pN2-3 was only 8% when modern fusion positron emission tomography-computed tomography imaging pointed at clinical N0 non-small-cell lung cancer. None of the 5 verified definitions of centrality was predictive for occult pN2-3. However, each definition of centrality was related to any pN+ at a prevalence of 21%, without significant differences in discriminative ability between definitions. These data question whether indication for preoperative invasive mediastinal staging should be based on centrality alone.