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Open research questions in Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

862 gap statements mined from Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 5,029 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The lack of a framework that can handle missing modalities in a realistic clinical setting. The need for a method that can retain patients with incomplete data in the analysis.

    Handling missing modalities in multimodal survival prediction for non-small cell lung cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • The management of stage III NSCLC remains controversial among surgeons and centres, particularly in cases involving multi-station N2 disease, bulky N2 involvement and T4 invasion.

    Preoperative CT Radiomics for Assessing Pathological Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy in Locally Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • The priority of most future investigations into each of the advancements discussed herein is firmly rooted in enhancing the safety and ease-of-access of the R-VATS platform. Single-anesthetic marking protocols, uniportal approaches, and complex analyses in the AI/radiomics space all started at high-volume centers with uniquely experienced surgeons and clinicians who had the foundation on which to innovate.

    From the Thoracoscope to the Robot: The Evolving Landscape of Minimally Invasive Pulmonary Surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • Future work will focus on multi-center clinical validation, prospective studies, and deployment-oriented evaluation to assess the model’s robustness, generalizability, and clinical applicability in real-world diagnostic settings. The study is limited to the analysis of publicly available datasets, and the model’s effectiveness in real-world clinical workflows remains unverified.

    Efficient Lung Cancer Detection using CT Images: A Novel Approach with Entropy-Based Local Binary Summation Patterns and Deep Learning Optimized by Hiking Lyrebird Optimization · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research in this space should work to minimize uncertainty and variability. Key areas for improvement are defining the optimal patients for single anesthetic event lung cancer surgery.

    Single Anesthetic Approach to Diagnosis, Staging and Treatment of Lung Cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • Patients who do not achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR) or have PD-L1-negative tumors may be considered for a comprehensive perioperative strategy, although the optimal approach in these settings remains to be established.

    Multiple Options, One Objective: Clearer Decisions in Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • Addressing these uncertainties will require longitudinal data and prospective trials. Transitioning toward a multidimensional framework that integrates oncogenic drivers, growth trajectories, and the biomechanics of STAS may ultimately inform more nuanced risk stratification and therapeutic strategies in early-stage NSCLC.

    Spread through air spaces as a marker of nonlinear evolutionary trajectories in lung cancer: implications for the 9th edition TNM classification · 2026 · DOI

  • Although rotating held-out test folds provided internal validation, the transportability and generalisability of the model remain unknown, and independent multicentre and prospective validation is required. 1889248 applicability of the framework to pulmonary nodules outside the adenocarcinoma spectrum, including squamous cell carcinoma and small-cell lung cancer, also remains uncertain.

    Imaging-based development and validation of artificial intelligence models for lung adenocarcinoma precursor lesions and early lung adenocarcinoma presenting as pulmonary nodules · 2026 · DOI

  • The study notes the challenge of limited statistical power due to the small number of patients who underwent segmentectomy. The study identifies the challenge of procedural complexity influencing disposable material consumption.

    The cost of intraoperative disposable materials in complete resection of non-small cell lung cancer: A comparative analysis of lobectomy and segmentectomy · 2026 · DOI

  • Notably, LD-B group also further dose demonstrated feasibility, suggesting that reduction could be explored in the future to provide more individualized scanning protocols without compromising image quality or nodule detection performance. However, few studies have implemented BMI-based protocols to ensure consistent nodule detection across body types.

    Feasibility of BMI-based sub-milliSievert low-dose CT in individualized detection of lung nodules · 2026 · DOI

  • A major limitation of our study is the lack of a universal ground truth, as we did not include an independent human reader for the entire cohort. Consequently, there is no data on the total number of nodules potentially missed by all three AI tools, preventing an absolute sensitivity analysis.

    Lung nodule detection and potential impact on guideline-based management: a retrospective post-market evaluation of three commercial software systems · 2026 · DOI

  • This hybrid model not only addresses the challenges in lung cancer diagnosis but also sets a foundation for scalable and efficient applications in medical imaging and other complex disease classifications. This approach not only leverages the strengths of deep learning architectures but also addresses challenges like feature optimization and imbalanced datasets.

    Enhancing lung cancer disease classification based on BPSO and stacked MLP with CNN model · 2026 · DOI

  • By providing a detailed, patient-specific view of pulmonary anatomy, it addresses a key limitation of conventional 2D imaging—the inability to reliably represent the full extent and significance of bronchovascular variation. While available studies consistently report clinical utility, high-level prospective evidence confirming an independent impact on operative outcomes and oncological endpoints is lacking.

    Three-Dimensional Bronchovascular Modelling in Sublobar Pulmonary Resection: A Tool for Personalised Thoracic Surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • Differences in segmentation algorithms, workflow integration, and performance across varying imaging quality and anatomical complexity remain important challenges requiring further validation and standardisation. 11.2. Intraoperative Navigation Integration of 3D models into intraoperative navigation represents a second key direction.

    Three-Dimensional Bronchovascular Modelling in Sublobar Pulmonary Resection: A Tool for Personalised Thoracic Surgery · 2026 · DOI

  • Methylene blue offers high technical success (~98%) but is limited to a 1–3-h window before dye diffusion renders the mark uninterpretable. Indocyanine green with near-infrared thoracoscopy avoids transthoracic needle placement entirely and has demonstrated 98–100% success in adult series, but requires specialized imaging equipment and pediatric-specific data remain limited.

    Dual-coil localization with intentional pneumothorax for pulmonary nodule resection in pediatric patients: a novel technical approach · 2026 · DOI

  • Those inherent to the database include the lack of data covering treatments administered at other institutions and limited collection of DPC data linked to HBCR of 1.

    Trends and current status in anticancer therapy for older patients with non-small cell lung cancer in Japan, 2016–2021 · 2026 · DOI

  • The study had a limited sample size of 125 patients. The study was retrospective in nature. The choice of surgical procedure was determined through a conference led by the thoracic surgeon, which may introduce bias.

    Efficacy of a new surgical indicator for lung cancer with interstitial lung disease based on the gender–age–physiology staging system · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies are needed to validate the predicted ILD-GAP stage in larger cohorts. Research on the development of new surgical indicators for lung cancer patients with ILD is necessary. Investigations into the impact of immune checkpoint inhibitors or molecular-targeted therapies on lung cancer patients with ILD are required.

    Efficacy of a new surgical indicator for lung cancer with interstitial lung disease based on the gender–age–physiology staging system · 2026 · DOI

  • Limitations of this study include the variability in conditions under which participants assessed NSCLC cases, such as timing of evaluation, use of digital slides, time pressure, and technical conditions.

    The critical role of accurate neoplastic cell percentage (NCP) assessment: investigating targeted training strategies for pulmonary biopsy and cytology specimens · 2026 · DOI

  • Figure 2 shows, for each product, task coverage within each nodule management recommendation. Coverage was highest for EUPS, with 10/16 products achieving high coverage, 4/16 substantial coverage, and 2/16 low coverage. BTS showed the next highest coverage, with 4/16 products in the high category, 10/16 in the substantial category, and 2/16 in the low category.

    Commercial AI for CT lung cancer screening: product capabilities, coverage of nodule management tasks and supporting evidence · 2026 · DOI

  • Although CT remains the gold standard for pulmonary nodule imaging, advances in lung magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are noteworthy. While MRI is increasingly used in conditions such as cystic fibrosis, there are ongoing initiatives to establish MRI techniques for nodule detection, characterization, and follow-up (Fig. 8).

    Imaging and characterization of pulmonary nodules in children with solid tumors: what makes a pulmonary nodule a metastasis? · 2026 · DOI

  • The clinical landscape of oligometastatic NSCLC is currently shifting from an empirical treatment to a precision-based framework.

    Strategy Integrating Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Oligometastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Narrative Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating the application of the proposed framework to other diseases, - Exploring the use of other foundation models for feature extraction, - Developing more sophisticated methods for handling missing…

    Handling missing modalities in multimodal survival prediction for non-small cell lung cancer · 2026 · DOI

  • Further evaluation of model generalization on external clinical data, - Exploration of UniLung-CT on other medical imaging…

    An end-to-end hybrid 3D CNN–transformer architecture for comprehensive lung cancer assessment from chest CT scans · 2026 · DOI

  • The relatively small number of patients who underwent segmentectomy may have limited statistical power and reduced the generalizability of the findings; Procedural complexity may influence disposable material consumption; The analysis was limited to high-cost disposable materials and did not include personnel costs, operating room expenses, capital equipment costs, maintenance costs, hospitalization costs, or other…

    The cost of intraoperative disposable materials in complete resection of non-small cell lung cancer: A comparative analysis of lobectomy and segmentectomy · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) The lack of a framework that can handle missing modalities in a realistic clinical setting (“Handling missing modalities in multimodal survival prediction for non-small…”, 2026); (2) The management of stage III NSCLC remains controversial among surgeons and centres, particularly in cases involving multi-station N2 disease, bulky N2 involvement and T4 invasion (“Preoperative CT Radiomics for Assessing Pathological Response to Neoadjuvant…”, 2026); (3) Future work will focus on multi-center clinical validation, prospective studies, and deployment-oriented evaluation to assess the model’s robustness, generalizability, and clinical applicability in real-world diagnostic settings (“Efficient Lung Cancer Detection using CT Images: A Novel Approach with…”, 2026); (4) Patients who do not achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR) or have PD-L1-negative tumors may be considered for a comprehensive perioperative strategy, although the optimal approach in these settings remains to be established (“Multiple Options, One Objective: Clearer Decisions in Resectable Non-Small Cell…”, 2026); (5) Although rotating held-out test folds provided internal validation, the transportability and generalisability of the model remain unknown, and independent multicentre and prospective validation is required (“Imaging-based development and validation of artificial intelligence models for…”, 2026). 862 gap statements have been mined from Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 5,029 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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