Role of mediastinoscopy, mediastinotomy and scalene lymph node biopsy in staging bronchogenic carcinoma

Bronchogenic carcinoma [BC] is the most common tumor of the lung and causes over one third of all cancer deaths in male. The aim of this study was to evaluate the different invasive techniques in staging patients with BC. Thirty-four patients with BC without any clinical manifestations of metastasis were studied. Nine patients had performed scalene lymph node biopsy, 13 patients had performed mediastinotomy and 12 patients had performed mediastinoscopy. The positive results were 11.1%, 30.8% and 41.7%, respectively. It was concluded that these invasive techniques are safe procedures for the assessment patients with BC