A Correlational Study of Bronchial Brushing With Bronchoscopic Biopsy in Diagnosis of Malignant Lung Neoplasms”

Lung cancer is one of the commonest cancer and cause of cancer related deaths all over the world . According to recent studies the incidence is on the rise in women. Several studies however have demonstrated that early detection, localisation and aggressive treatment of lung cancer results in five year survival rate of 70 to 80%. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy has an excellent result in diagnosis of lung cancer when combined with brushing cytology & biopsy . A total of 51 cases, clinically & radiologically suspected of lung cancer, undergoing brush cytology and bronchial biopsy done, were included in this study. Suspected lung cancer biopsies were included in this prospective and retrospective study on whom bronchoscopy was performed specimens were collected over the period of 6 year. Bronchial brushing, biopsy specimens were collected & processed accordingly. Out of 51 suspected lung cancer cases, the most common was the squamous cell carcinoma (68.62%), followed by adenocarcinoma (17.64%), small cell carcinoma (11.76%) and negative for malignancy 1(1.51%). Thus, cytohistological correlation was done in 51 suspected lung cancer cases. Bronchial biopsy has better detection rate than brushing cytology in this study. Bronchial brushing cytology is an inexpensive, less invasive, quick and effective diagnostic tool in detection of lung cancer. However combination of these modalities gives higher detection rate for bronchoscopically visible tumor. Therefore, bronchial brush cytology should be performed whenever possible in all suspected cases of lung cancer.