Minimally invasive thoracic surgical techniques appear to reduce important morbidity and facilitate return to normal activity when compared with standard open approaches [1–3]. Mechanisms for this benefit likely include reduction in pain, earlier ambulation, and decreased inflammatory response to injury [3–6]. Before such techniques are routinely adopted, however, it is incumbent upon thoracic surgeons to demonstrate that therapeutic benefit of the procedure is not compromised. For resection of lung cancer, this means there must be comparable completeness of resection with appropriate lymph node sampling or lymphadenectomy [2, 7–9].