Invasive techniques in diagnosis and staging of lung cancer

Aim-Background During the staging process of lung cancer, accurate mediastinal lymph node staging is one of the more important factors to affect patient outcome. Accurate staging of the disease is important not only in determining prognosis but also in deciding the optimal treatment plan. The most significant treatment decision is establishing which patients can benefit from surgical resection and which should receive chemotherapy, radiation, or both. This paper reviews indications and current data regarding minimally invasive approaches for diagnosis and staging of lung cancer. In addition, current advances in diagnostic endoscopy for lung cancer will be reviewed.