title: Practice, efficacy and cost of staging suspected non-small cell lung cancer: a retrospective study in two Dutch hospitals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A study was undertaken to investigate the clinical practice, yield, and costs of preoperative staging in patients with suspected NSCLC and to obtain baseline data for prospective studies on the cost effectiveness of (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in the management of these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study of the medical records of all patients with suspected NSCLC was performed during a 2 year interval (1993-4) in an academic and a large community hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three hundred and ninety five patients with suspected NSCLC were identified; 58 were deemed to be medically inoperable and 337 patients proceeded to the staging process. Staging required a mean (SD) of 5.1 (1.5) diagnostic tests per patient (excluding thoracotomy) carried out over a median period of 20 days (IQR 10-31). Many of the tests (including both invasive and non-invasive) were done because previous imaging tests had suggested metastases, and in most cases the results of initial tests proved to be false positives. After clinical staging, 168 patients were considered to be resectable (stage I/II) and 144 patients underwent surgery with curative intent. At surgery 33 patients (23% of those who underwent surgery) were found to have irresectable lesions and 19 (13%) had a benign lesion. Surgery was also considered to be futile in 22 patients (15%) who developed metastases or local recurrence within 12 months following radical surgery. Hospital admission was responsible for most of the costs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In many patients staging involved considerable effort in terms of the number of diagnostic tests, the duration of the staging period and the cost, with limited success in preventing futile surgery. Failures relate to the quality of diagnostic preparation at every level of the TNM staging system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G J M
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Herder
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verboom
authors.forename: E F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Smit
authors.forename: P C M
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: van Velthoven
authors.forename: J H A M
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: van den Bergh
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Colder
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Mansom
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: van Mourik
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Postmus
authors.forename: G J J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Teule
authors.forename: O S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Hoekstra
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000191:economics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000191:economics; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D018447:Medical Futility; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000191:economics; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D009426:Netherlands; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000191:economics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000191:economics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18