Staging Lung Cancer: Regional Lymph Node Classification

This article reviews regional lymph node assessment in lung cancer. In the absence of a distant metastasis, the absence or location of lung cancer spread to a regional mediastinal lymph node affects treatment options and prognosis. Regional lymph node maps have been created to standardize assessment of the N descriptor. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer lymph node map is used for the standardization of N descriptor assessment. CT, PET/CT with fluorodeoxyglucose, endobronchial ultrasound–guided and/or esophageal ultrasound–guided biopsy, and mediastinoscopy are common modalities used to determine the N descriptor.