Post-thoracotomy diagnostic and staging conversion rates of clinically staged I lung cancer

The accuracy of stage I lung cancer assessment achieved by traditional clinico-diagnostic staging was retrospectively evaluated in 164 consecutive patients who underwent thoracotomy. The diagnostic conversion rate was 6.7% (1 carcinoid and 10 innocent pulmonary lesions) and occurred only in the subset of patients lacking preoperative pathologic confirmation (15%). The conversion rate to unresectable tumor extent was 8% (11/153), and local spread was the main cause of unresectability (5.5%). The staging conversion rate was 29% (43/153): the conversion rate for nodal evaluation was double that of primary tumor evaluation (24% versus 12%), but conversion to anatomically unresectable nodal diffusion occurred in only one patient (0.6%). The ability of the surgeon to convert the wrong diagnosis was scanty without extemporary biopsy, and 7 patients with innocent lesions underwent standard resection for primary cancer. Surgical staging was a precise as pathological staging in primary tumor evaluation, but was faulty in nodal evaluation (15% error in sN- and sN1-2 assessment). It is concluded that following stage I lung cancer assessment by traditional means, supplementary examinations are requested for a better sensitivity of pathological confirmation and a better refinement of local spread. Better nodal evaluation has less value until a biologic limit to surgery for anatomically resectable nodal diffusion is universally accepted.