Computed tomography in preoperative staging of bronchogenic carcinoma

Thirty-five patients with non-oat-cell primary bronchogenic carcinoma were studied with computed tomography (CT) and retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the usefulness of CT in the preoperative staging. All patients underwent mediastinoscopy, and those with a negative exploration were referred for thoracotomy. Computed tomography demonstrated lymph nodes in 31 patients, 17 of them having nodes larger than 1 cm. Malignant involvement of lymph nodes was present in only 2 of these 17 patients. However, nodal involvement was present in five of the patients with lymph nodes less than 1 cm in diameter. Nine out of 10 patients who proved unresectable at thoracotomy were correctly evaluated at CT. Five additional patients were incorrectly presumed to be unresectable. The use of CT for staging of primary lung tumors, therefore, needs further investigation.