Comparison of PET-CT and Invasive Intervention Results of Mediastinal Lymph Nodes in Lung Cancer Cases: Descriptive Study

Objective: Appropriate treatment method in patients diagnosed with lung cancer tumor-lymph node-metastasis staging is used to identify and predict disease progression. Mediastinal staging is particularly valuable in this regard. This study was conducted to compare the positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with lung cancer with the results of invasive methods. Material and Methods: A research group of 100 cases diagnosed with lung cancer was made in our clinic between January 1, 2015- March 30, 2022. Based on the histopathological data of cases in which invasive diagnosis/treatment was performed in the evaluation of the mediastinum, the consistency of PET-CT in mediastinal staging will be determined by the percentage consistency method. Results: Of the patients, 87% were male and 13% were female. The mean age was 61.6 (34-78) years. In our study, sensitivity for mediastinal staging of PET-CT was determined 85%, specificity 75%, false positive value 25%, false negative value 15%, positive predictive value 70%, negative predictive value 88%, likelihood ratio 3.36 and accuracy rate 79%. Conclusion: We believe that the need for invasive staging is less in patients with low fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in mediastinal lymph nodes on PET-CT, but invasive staging is necessary according to the localization of the lymph node in high-risk cases, even if PET-CT is negative, in order to reduce false-negative results and protect patients from unnecessary surgery.