Lung cancer: Morphological and functional approach to screening, staging and treatment planning

Lung cancer is a major problem in public health and constitutes the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. Lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography is promising but needs to overcome many difficulties, such as the large number of incidentally discovered nodules, the radiation dose delivered to the patient during a whole screening program and its cost. The ultimate target point represented by the reduction of lung cancer-related mortality needs to be proved in large, well-designed, randomized, multicenter, prospective trials. Lung cancer staging by morphological tools seems to be limited owing to the presence of metastases in normal-sized lymph nodes. In this context, multidetector computed tomography cannot be used alone but is useful in conjunction with molecular imaging and MRI. Today, flurodeoxglucose PET-CT appears to be the most accurate method for lung cancer staging and may prevent unnecessary thoracotomies. For treatment planning, flurodeoxglucose PET-CT is playing an increasing role in radiotherapy planning at the target selection and definition steps.