Searching for the perfect lymphadenectomy

It is nowadays well known that accurate pathological staging is crucial for lung cancer patients. However, the role of lymphadenectomy seems to be still an open problem: does it exist a real benefit from it in terms of disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS)? Should we perform a complete dissection of the mediastinum and hilum or sampling could be enough? However, there are also other open questions and one in particular is eliciting interest among thoracic surgeons and oncologists; it regards the topic addressed in a paper published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology last August by Samayoa and colleagues (1).