Utility of Routine Cervical Mediastinoscopy in Clinical Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

To prospectively look at the utility of routine cervical mediastinoscopy (lymph node biopsy) in patients with clinically staged T2N0M0 NSCLC, as well as patients with clinically staged T1N0M0 NSCLC with a high maxSUV of the primary tumor on PET imaging. Hypothesis #1: The prevalence of mediastinal lymph node metastases detectable by cervical mediastinoscopy is sufficiently low (\<10%) to not support the routine use of this test in the study population. Hypothesis #2: The preoperative detection of occult(hidden) N2 lymph node metastases by cervical mediastinoscopy in patients with clinically staged T2N0M0 NSCLC or T1N0M0 NSCLC with maxSUV \>10 on PET does not provide a survival benefit when compared to detection of occult N2 lymph node metastases at the time of thoracotomy using nodal dissection or systematic sampling.