The role of CT in staging radiographic T1N0M0 lung cancer.

Thirty-one patients with non-small-cell bronchogenic carcinoma and standard chest radiographs showing T1N0M0 tumors underwent preoperative chest and upper abdominal computed tomography (CT) with subsequent thorough surgical-pathologic correlation of their disease status. Eight patients (25.8%) had tissue-proven mediastinal or distant metastasis at presentation. In five (62.5%) of these eight patients the presence of unresectable disease was detected by CT and an unnecessary thoracotomy was avoided. These five patients comprised three with mediastinal lymph-node metastasis, one with adrenal metastasis, and one with a coexistent contralateral, proximal endobronchial tumor. Three patients with unresectable disease not detected by CT (CT false negatives) had metastasis to normal-sized mediastinal lymph nodes. There were two CT false-positive diagnoses of adrenal metastasis in patients proven by CT-guided aspiration to have benign adrenal masses, and these patients subsequently underwent curative lung resection. Although the data base is relatively small, the authors conclude that preoperative CT may be useful in evaluating patients with radiographic T1N0M0 lung cancer.