Is sampling really effective in staging non-small cell lung cancer?
The aim of the study was to assess if systematic nodal dissection is necessary in order to stage non-small cell lung cancer correctly or whether mediastinal lymph node sampling can be used and whether in selected cases it could replace systematic nodal dissection for the treatment of lung cancer. A prospective study was conducted in 94 patients affected by clinically resectable non-small cell lung cancer (stages I-IIIB) who were surgically treated by the same team of surgeons. During surgery mediastinal lymph node sampling was done first and then another surgeon completed the systematic nodal dissection and performed the lung resection. One hundred and ninety-three mediastinal nodal stations were investigated using the American Thoracic Society lymph node map to identify them. On analysing the 193 mediastinal nodal stations investigated, it emerged that in 181 cases (94%) mediastinal lymph node sampling and systematic nodal dissection yielded the same histopathological findings, wherea
