The role of mediastinoscopic biopsy in preoperative assessment of lung cancer

Between 1970 and 1989, mediastinoscopy and thoracotomy were performed on 619 patients admitted to our clinic with lung cancer. When mediastinoscopy was analyzed by lymph node location, the highest sensitivity (95.7 %) was for the left paratracheal nodes and the lowest (64.0%) was for nodes at the bifurcation (p < 0.01). The 5-year survivals according to the results of mediastinoscopy were 47% for negative results, 14% for false-negative results, and 6% for positive results. The 5-year survival rate however, was significantly higher (28%) in patients (n = 13) with positive mediastinoscopic findings who underwent complete resection of the primary tumor and all involved nodes than in patients (n = 78) who underwent incomplete resection (p < 0.01). These data support our opinion that patients with positive mediastinoscopic results should not always be excluded from treatment by thoracotomy. The role of mediastinoscopy is not to select patients for thoracotomy but to evaluate lung cancer at the pretreatment stage.