Imaging in thoracic oncology: case studies from Multidisciplinary Thoracic Tumor Board (part 1 of 2 part series)

Multidisciplinary tumor board conferences foster collaboration among health care providers from a variety of specialties and help to facilitate optimal patient care. Typical cases from thoracic tumor board conferences include patients with known or suspected bronchogenic and esophageal carcinomas, as well as less common diseases such as thymomas and mesotheliomas. In most instances, the clinical questions revolve around the best options for establishing a diagnosis, staging the disease and directing treatment. This article describes and illustrates the clinical scenarios of three patients who were presented at our tumor board, focusing on management issues and the role of imaging. These patients had non-small cell lung cancer and mediastinal lymph node metastases; a small, growing ground glass nodule; and oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer, respectively.