Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration in the evaluation of suspected lung cancer.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The role of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer is still not fully explored. This prospective study aimed to define the effectiveness of EUS-FNA as an adjunct to computer tomography (CT) and bronchoscopy in the evaluation of suspected lung cancer in routine clinical practice.

METHODS: Over a period of 20 weeks, the data of 16 consecutive patients suspected of lung cancer on account of respiratory symptoms, and/or the findings of either a mass or mediastinal lymph nodes on helical CT, who were referred for evaluation by EUS, were prospectively collected. Fourteen of these patients underwent sequential bronchoscopy followed by EUS-FNA in the same setting.

RESULTS: Bronchoscopy was performed in 15 patients, while EUS was performed in all 16 patients. Bronchoscopy diagnosed 9 cases of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but was falsely negative in 3 cases of malignancies, which were all established by EUS-FNA of mediastinal lymph nodes (2 cases of NSCLC and 1 case of esophageal squamous cell cancer). EUS-FNA also diagnosed advanced NSCLC in another patient who did not undergo bronchoscopy, such that eventually 13 patients were diagnosed to have malignancies. Distant metastases were diagnosed by EUS-FNA in 4 cases of NSCLC (2 cases of left adrenal gland and 2 cases of pancreatic metastases). Two patients were diagnosed to have sarcoidosis and 1 patient was diagnosed to have pneumoconiosis eventually.

CONCLUSIONS: EUS-FNA is useful as an adjunct to CT and bronchoscopy in the evaluation of suspected lung cancer.