Table 3.

Surgical oncology priorities for lung disease

High priority	Medium priority	Low priority
Drainage =/- pleurodesis of pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, tamponade risk
Evacuation of empyema-abscess
T2N0 tumours naïve from treatment or after induction chemotherapy	Discordant biopsies likely to be malignant	Discordant biopsies likely to be benign
Resectable T3/T4 tumours naïve from treatment or after induction chemotherapy
Resectable N1/N2 disease naïve from treatment or after induction chemotherapy		Operable pure GGO nodule (T1a)
Operable NSCLC with T1AN0 (alternative if no surgical capacity available is stereotactic radiotherapy; surgery is preferred)
Diagnostic procedure as mediastinoscopy / thoracoscopy / pleural biopsy / endoscopy / transthoracic investigations for diagnostic/staging workup	Diagnostic work-up and/or resection of nodules of incidental finding with either: Solid nodule >500 mm3 Pleural-based solid nodule >10 mm Solid component >500 mm3 in partially solid nodule Known VDT <400 days New solid component in pre-existing non-solid nodule (alternative if no surgical capacity available is stereotactic radiotherapy)	Diagnostic work-up and/or resection of all other nodules of incidental finding including too: Solid nodule >500mm3 and known VDT >600 days (alternative if no surgical capacity available is stereotactic radiotherapy)

GGO, ground-glass opacity; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer; VDT, volume doubling time.