Is VAMLA/TEMLA the new standard of preresection staging of non-small cell lung cancer?

Accurate mediastinal staging is the hallmark of a good thoracic oncology program. Mediastinal lymph node staging is important for prognostication and to guide the administration of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy. In addition, accurate mediastinal staging is necessary for a fair comparison of different clinical studies. The most important surgical advance in mediastinal lymph node staging in the past few years is transcervical staging, by either sternal elevation or video-assisted mediastinoscopy. The present report summarizes the existing published data evaluating such an approach.