Lung cancer staging: State of the art in the era of ablative therapies and surgical segmentectomy

Abstract

Implementation of lung cancer screening and improvements in imaging are expected to increase the proportion of lung cancer diagnosed at an early stage. The standard of care has historically been anatomic lobectomy; however, there is now an array of surgical and non‐surgical approaches for management of local disease either in active use or under investigation. By their nature, these new modalities offer a theoretical trade‐off of reduced morbidity in exchange for reduced efficacy in the setting of advanced disease. It is therefore critical that patients being considered for these approaches (e.g. surgical segmentectomy and SABR) be accurately staged to maximize the potential for definitive treatment. In this article, we will review current approaches to the staging of patients being considered for segmentectomy or ablation. This will serve as a foundation to highlight important questions deserving further investigation.