Washington, Feb 6: Less invasive methods may accurately
determine the stage of suspected lung cancer better than conventional
invasive procedures, says a new study.

Determining the stage of the lung cancer is a crucial factor regarding
therapy and prognosis however the researchers believe that less
invasive methods have emerged as potential alternatives.

"Noninvasive staging with chest computed tomography (CT) or positron
emission tomography (PET) is associated with high rates of
false-positive and false-negative results, respectively but less
invasive methods have emerged as potential alternatives," wrote the
authors.

The team led by Michael B. Wallace, M. D., M. P. H., of Mayo Clinic,
Jacksonville, Fla., compared the diagnostic accuracy of theree methods
that were blind transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA), endoscopic
ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), and, more recently,
endobronchial ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration
(EBUS-FNA).

The study involved 138 patients with suspected lung cancer out of which 42 (30 percent) had malignant lymph nodes. \

The finds revealed that 15 percent of malignant lymph nodes were
detected by TBNA, EBUS-FNA detected 19.7 percent and EUS plus EBUS
detected 22 percent of the lymph nodes.

"If mediastinoscopy[a surgical procedure that requires incisions] had
been performed only when results from EUS plus EBUS were negative, this
surgical procedure would have been avoided in 28 percent (39/138) of
patients in this study.

"If EUS plus EBUS had been used to completely replace mediastinoscopy
(100 percent of patients), 97 percent would have been correctly
labelled as negative," the authors added

The authors also believe that if these data are confirmed by other
studies, they thus suggest that EUS plus EBUS may be an alternative
method for surgical staging of the disease in patients with suspected
lung cancer.

The study appears in the February 6 issue of JAMA. (ANI)