Metabolic Staging of Lung Cancer

Carcinoma of the lung is the leading cause of death from cancer in Western countries. Surgery is the treatment most likely to result in the cure of early non–small-cell lung carcinoma, which includes squamous-cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large-cell carcinoma. In contrast, at presentation small-cell lung cancer (oat-cell carcinoma) has almost always spread, and patients with this form of lung cancer are not candidates for resection. Since tumor involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes limits the chance of a surgical cure of non–small-cell lung cancer, accurate staging of disease in the mediastinum is essential. For patients with disease classified as stage I . . .