Abstract
In suppot with field cancerisation theory, some patients with lung cancer (LC) will also have synchronous invasive or pre-invasive bronchial lesions; we used autofluorescence bronchoscopy (AFB) to assess the prevalence of synchronous lesions in patients with LC. All patients with abnormal sputum cytology, underwent white light and AFB. From 335 patients with abnormal sputum cytology referred for AFB, lung cancer was detected in 91 patients (89 male and 2 female) age (mean±SD, 67±8 years). 77 have squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC), 13 had adenocarcinoma and one patient with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Synchronous lesions detected in 26 (29%) patients, 25 (33%) of patients with SqCC, one with adenocarcinoma, no synchronous lesion detected in one patient with SCLC. The most severe detected synchronous lesion was adenocarcinoma in one patient, Carcinoma insitu (CIS) in 4 patients, severe dysplasia in 3 patients, moderate dysplasia in 10 patients, and mild dysplasia in 8 patients. Synchronuos lesions wrer more frequently detected in current smokers (35%), than in ex-smokers (20%) and non-smokers (15%). In conclusion, we recommend the use of AFB for preoperative evaluation of patients with lung cancer as synchronous lesions is a frequent finding. In summary; synchronous preinvasive lesions is frequent in patients with LC and AFB should be included in pre-operative evaluation of these patients.
- © 2013 ERS
