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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Respirol. Jul 28, 2015; 5(2): 166-175
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v5.i2.166
Current methods of staging and restaging of the mediastinal nodes in non-small-cell lung cancer
Marcin Zielinski
Marcin Zielinski, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Pulmonary Hospital, 34500 Zakopane, Poland
Author contributions: Zielinski M designed, performed research, analyzed data and wroted the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Marcin Zielinski, MD, PhD, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Pulmonary Hospital, Ul. Gładkie 1, 34500 Zakopane, Poland. marcinz@mp.pl
Telephone: +48-18-2015045 Fax: +48-18-2014632
Received: November 24, 2014
Peer-review started: November 26, 2014
First decision: January 20, 2015
Revised: April 13, 2015
Accepted: July 7, 2015
Article in press: July 8, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Processing time: 252 Days and 17.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: All methods currently used for staging of non-small-cell lung cancer are analyzed. These methods include imaging techniques [computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) combined with CT (PET/CT)], endoscopic/ultrasound techniques endobronchial ultrasound/transbronchial needle aspiration and endoscopic ultrasound/fine needle aspiration and surgical techniques standard cervical mediastinoscopy, video-assisted mediastinoscopy, extended mediastinoscopy, video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy, transcervical extended mediastinal lymphadenectomy, anterior mediastinotomy (chamberlain procedure) and video-assisted thoracic surgery. The issue of intraoperative staging is also described. Finally, the author’s proposed algorithm of staging, both for primary staging and restaging after neoadjuvant therapy is presented.