Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical value of liquid-based cytologic test（LCT） and transbronchial needle aspiration（TBNA） in the mediastinal staging of non-small cell lung cancer（NSCLC）. Methods The clinical data of 96 patients with NSCLC diagnosed by conventional electronic bronchoscopy from August 2011 to December 2013 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Mediastinal staging by TBNA were performed before operation. TBNA specimens were prepared by conventional smears（CS）and LCT, respectively. All patients subsequently underwent pulmonary resection with mediastinal lymph node dissection. The differences in the cytopathological diagnosis between the two preparation Methods in TBNA specimens were compared. The accuracy rate of mediasinal staging of NSCLC by LCT and TBNA was analyzed.Results 96 patients with 258 lymph nodes were punctured. TBNA procedures were successfully carried out in 519/539（96.29%）. The positive rate of TBNA specimens by LCT was 84.88%（219/258），while the positive rate of TBNA specimens by CS was 54.65%（141/258）. The difference was statistically significant（P<0.05）. The accuracy rate of mediasinal staging of NSCLC by TBNA of LCT smears was 93.75%（90/96）， which was higher than that of CS （62.5%，60/96）. The difference was statistically significant（P<0.01）. Sixty-nine patients had no serious complications including massive haemorrhage or mediasinal infection by TBNA examination. Conclusion The combined method of LCT and TBNA can improve the accuracy of mediasinal staging of NSCLC， which has certain clincical application value.