One goal of staging is to classify properly operable patients and avoid surgery in those with unresectable disease. The interactive table below defines the currently accepted staging system for non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma. Current statistics on 5 year survival are also shown and examples of different stages are illustrated. Even though the numbers are small, not all enlarged nodes contain metastases. Note the poor sensitivity and agreement for left sided mediastinal lymph nodes.
Most deaths are due to local recurrence or disseminated disease.
Analysis of the causes of death within a year of surgery suggest that a third of patients have metastases. Likely sites of metastases include bone, brain, liver, and adrenal glands. The probability of metastases depends on the TNM stage and the histologic type. The higher the stage the more frequent the metastases. For example, there is a 12 fold increase in cerebral metastases in patients with T2N1 tumors compared to T1N0.