Commentary: Targeted sampling during endobronchial ultrasound: Additional prerequisites for clinical implementation

Abstract

Evaluating the mediastinal lymph nodes is crucial for staging and leads to accurate lung cancer treatment plans and prognosis predictions. Because computed tomography and positron emission tomography have high false-positive rates and relatively low sensitivity and specificity, invasive mediastinal staging plays a vital role in the histologic confirmation of metastasis and ruling out false positives. Currently available lung cancer guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and the American College of Chest Physicians emphasize the use of invasive mediastinal staging in some groups of patients who have a high probability of node metastasis.