Lung Cancer Staging

The University of Michigan is one of just a few centers in the country using positron emission tomography (PET) to accurately stage non-small cell lung cancer and to determine whether surgery or a non-operative approach is most appropriate. PET scanning detects metastatic disease by measuring changes in the metabolic characteristics of tissue. In our preliminary tests, PET scanning was accurate in detecting mediastinal lymph node metastases 75% of the time versus CT scanning, which had greater than a 50% false-positive rate.