For mediastinal nodal staging of potentially resectable non–small cell lung cancer, there were no survival differences at 5 years with endosonography or mediastinoscopy in an analysis of the ASTER trial, reports Medscape.
The Assessment of Surgical Staging vs Endosonographic Ultrasound in Lung Cancer (ASTER) trial compared surgical staging using mediastinoscopy with staging that employed a combination of endobronchial and transesophageal ultrasound followed by mediastinoscopy if negative.
The results, published in JAMA in 2010, were clear: the endosonographic strategy was significantly more sensitive for diagnosing mediastinal nodal metastases than surgical staging (94% vs 79%).
The post hoc analysis, published online September 13 as a research letter in JAMA, found no difference in 5-year survival between the two staging strategies.
Jouke T. Annema, MD, PhD, of the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues obtained survival data through patient records, death registers, or contact with general practitioners for 121 of 123 patients who underwent endosonographic staging and 116 of 118 who underwent surgical staging.
The prevalence of mediastinal nodal metastases was 54% in the endosonography group and 44% in mediastinoscopy group.
