Factors affecting accuracy of clinical staging in resectable non-small cell lung cancer in a real-world study.

Clinical staging accuracy in NSCLC improved compared to before the widespread use of PET-CT and EBUS in clinical staging work-up. Smoking history and absence of expert bronchoscopy specialists showed a meaningful correlation with the inaccuracy of clinical staging. Thus, training more bronchoscopy experts would improve the staging accuracy of NSCLC, which could positively affect the prognosis of NSCLC.