Phillips WW, Weiss KD, Digesu CS, et al. - Given the correlation of missed nodal disease with recurrence in early stage NSCLC, researchers sought to ascertain technical-, patient-, tumor-, and treatment-related factors linked with near-infrared (NIR) guided sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification. They conducted a retrospective analysis of two phase I clinical trials examining NIR-guided SLN mapping utilizing ICG in cases with surgically resectable NSCLC. NIR-guided SLN mapping and lymphadenectomy were performed following peritumoral ICG injection in 66 patients. More reliable identification of SLN(s) was correlated with ICG dose ≥ 1 mg, albumin dissolvent, post-injection lung ventilation, radiologically solid nodules, and anatomic resections. To date, decreased recurrence and improved survival after surgery for NSCLC are observed in correlation with establishing N0 status via NIR SLN mapping.