RADIOLOGIC STAGING OF LUNG-CANCER

Lung cancer is the most common fatal malignancy in humans and may be b roadly classified as either small cell or non-small cell types. In thi s chapter we discuss the staging of non-small cell lung cancer. Stagin g at the time of diagnosis is important in assessing prognosis because costly curative surgery is based on this assessment. We review the us efulness of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRT) , and nuclear medicine studies and look briefly at minimally invasive surgery (including imaging guided biopsy procedures and surgical proce dures) in staging this common malignancy, CT remains the workhorse of radiologic staging, with the other modalities helpful in the final ass essment. In many situations, these modalities are necessary for accura te definition of the stage at presentation. Positron emission tomograp hy (PET) with [F-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uses tumor physiolo gy to localize metastatic disease and has the potential to be very use ful in the future.