Gallium scanning and tomography in the preoperative evaluation of lung cancer

Discrepant reports on the utility of gallium scanning in the preoperative evaluation of patients with lung cancer prompted a prospective study of the test. The authors studied 47 patients with lung cancer who underwent preoperative gallium scanning and frontal tomography of the mediastinum. Both tests were found to be most accurate in predicting the presence of mediastinal metastases among patients with squamous cell carcinoma. Both test may help direct surgical planning in patients with known squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.