Lung cancer staging: accuracy is critical

Complete and accurate staging for patients diagnosed with lung cancer to assess the extent of disease is of critical importance so that appropriate treatment recommendations may be provided (1). An incorrect clinical staging classification can lead to wrong decisions on withholding potentially curative resection as well as inappropriate nonsurgical definitive therapy and palliative treatment options. In their study, Navani and colleagues analyzed the accuracy of clinical staging for stage I–IIIa non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (2).