title: Assessment of the accuracy of diagnostic chest CT scanning. Impact on lung cancer management.
abstract: To evaluate the reliability of computed tomography (CT) scanning in detecting the locoregional extent of bronchogenic carcinoma, preoperative chest CT findings were compared with surgical and pathological findings (pTN) in 61 patients submitted to pulmonary resection for non-small cell lung carcinoma. Neoplastic disease was misdiagnosed in 3 cases. In the remaining 58 cases, CT showed a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in delineating T factor of 66.6%, 96.1%, 93.1% for T1; of 84.6%, 68.4%, 79.3% for T2; of 66.6%, 95.9%, 91.3% for T3 and of 50.0%, 94.4%, 91.3% for T4. For N1 and N2 factors, sensitivity was 45.4% and 27.2%; and accuracy was 74.1% and 81.0% respectively. The highest incidence of false positive N1 and false positive N2 was found in tumors classified at CT as T2 and T4 respectively. Overall CT showed a good accuracy in discriminating between resectable tumours with better prognosis (postsurgical pathological stage I-II) and those with less favourable outcome (postsurgical pathological stage III).
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Clinical Surgery, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cangemi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Volpino
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Drudi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: D'Andrea
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cangemi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piat
mesh_terms: D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed