[Correlation of lymph node size and metastatic involvement of lymph nodes in bronchial cancer]

For preoperative staging in lung cancer mediastinoscopy is in competition with X-ray, tomography, and computer-tomography (CT). Many authors certify a high sensitivity and specificity to CT in staging lung cancer preoperatively by measuring the diameter of the hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes. In this study we measured the diameter of 162 lymph nodes from 83 patients postoperatively. In view of staging we found no sufficient correlation between the diameter of the lymph nodes and their infiltration by cancer cells. Even 35.7% of the nodes with a diameter of more than 2 cm were not infiltrated. The data support the opinion that CT alone is not sufficient for preoperative staging in lung cancer.