ASSESSMENT OF THE ACCURACY OF DIAGNOSTIC CHEST CT SCANNING - IMPACT ON LUNG-CANCER MANAGEMENT

To evaluate the reliability of computed tomography (CT) scanning in de tecting the locoregional extent of bronchogenic carcinoma, preoperativ e chest CT findings were compared with surgical and pathological findi ngs (pTN) in 61 patients submitted to pulmonary resection for non-smal l cell lung carcinoma, Neoplastic disease was misdiagnosed in 3 cases, In the remaining 58 cases, CT showed a sensitivity, specificity and a ccuracy in delineating T factor of 66.6%, 96.1%, 93.1% for T1; of 84.6 %, 68.4%, 79.3% for T2; of 66.6%, 95.9%, 91.3% for T3 and of 50.0%, 94 .4%, 91.3% for T4. For N1 and N2 factors, sensitivity was 45.4% and 27 .2%; and accuracy was 74.1% and 81.0% respectively, The highest incide nce of false positive N1 and false positive N2 was found in tumours cl assified at CT as T2 and T4 respectively, Overall CT showed a good acc uracy in discriminating between resectable tumours with better prognos is (postsurgical pathological stage I-II) and those with less favourab le outcome (postsurgical pathological stage III).