Selecting therapy for small ground-glass tumors—the potential role of volumetric computed tomography scan

Shimada and colleagues have reported on the prognostic value of tumor solid-part size and solid-part volume in patients with clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (1). In their study, the authors studied 252 patients with clinical stage I NSCLC that included a ground-glass component and used high-resolution computed tomography (CT) with 3D reconstruction for evaluation. The authors correlated 2D-data (including whole tumor size, solid part size) and 3D-data (including whole tumor volume and solid tumor volume) with outcomes. All patients underwent resection, so additional factors such as the relationship between radiological features and pathological outcomes including lymphovascular invasion or nodal upstaging could be evaluated.