Performance insights of endobronchial ultrasonography (EBUS) and mediastinoscopy for mediastinal lymph node staging in lung cancer

Introduction: Endobronchial Ultrasonography (EBUS) and mediastinoscopy are used for mediastinal lymph node staging in patients with suspected non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). In our hospital, confirmatory mediastinoscopy has been largely abandoned, which may reduce the number of surgical interventions and health care costs. This study provides insight into EBUS and mediastinoscopy performance in patients with proven NSCLC from January 2007 until January 2019. Methods: This is a single-centre, retrospective study, evaluating unforeseen N2 rates, negative predictive value and survival, providing insight into the diagnostic yield of EBUS and mediastinoscopy. Surgical lung resection with lymph node dissection was used as reference. Results: A total of 418 patients with proven NSCLC after lung resection (mean age: 66 years; 61 % male) and 118 patients who underwent mediastinoscopy, have been included in the study. The overall prevalence of N2 metastases after lung resection was 10.5 %. The percentage of unforeseen N2 cases after negative EBUS was 14.5 %, and 14.3 % after negative mediastinoscopy. Over the past nine years, none of the confirmatory mediastinoscopies were tumor positive after negative EBUS results. The median survival in patients with surgically confirmed N2 metastases was 33 months, compared to 23 months in patients with EBUS/mediastinoscopy-proven N2 metastases. Conclusion: Despite optimisation of mediastinal staging procedures, it remains difficult to identify all patients with N2 metastases in the workup of NSCLC. In our institute, confirmatory mediastinoscopy has no added value after tumor-negative EBUS procedures, and has been abandoned as standard procedure.

Automated summary

This retrospective study evaluated the performance of EBUS and mediastinoscopy in mediastinal lymph node staging in NSCLC patients. The results showed a higher percentage of unforeseen N2 cases after negative EBUS, and a difference in survival between surgically confirmed N2 metastases and EBUS/mediastinoscopy-proven N2 metastases. Despite optimization of mediastinal staging procedures, it remains challenging to identify all N2 metastases in NSCLC workup.