TY - JOUR T1 - Cytological specimens' relative contribution in establishing histological diagnosis of lung cancer JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P2768 AU - Stylianos Michaelides AU - Aphrodite Emmanouelidou AU - George Bablekos AU - George Ionas AU - Helen Ellina AU - Niki Maouni AU - Ioannis Platanos Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2768.abstract N2 - We evaluated the extend to which various types of cytological specimens can identify the histological i type of lung cancer in patients admitted in hospital during the last 1.5 yr. Seventy-four patients aged 62.5 ± 8.8 years (mean[plusmnSD) (50 male & 24 female), finally diagnosed with primary lung cancer. All had a computed tomographic evidence of tumor and underwent bronchoscopy. The final diagnosis was established by either bronchoscopic biopsy or surgical biopsy. The examined cytological specimens included: simple sputum smear (SP), bronchial washings (BW), post-bronchoscopy sputum (PB), brushing smears (BS) and transthoracic fine needle aspirates (FNA). The distribution of histologic types was: Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) 24 pts (32.4%), Squamous Cell Carcinoma 20 pts. (27%), Adenocarcinoma 14 pts. (18.9%), Undifferentiated Carcinoma 6pts..(12.3%), Large cell Carcinoma 2 pts. (0.28%). Analysis of our data showed that simple sputum cytology had a diagnostic success rate of 24.3% (relative yield: 66.6% for SCLC and 33.4% for NSCLC). The diagnostic yield of BW was 42% (almost equally partitioned between SCLC & NSCLC 52% & 48% respectively). BS diagnosed 23% of lung cancer, of which 56.3% was the yield for adenocarcinoma. The overall diagnostic contribution of cytology was 57/74 pts. (77%). We conclude that simple sputum cytology should not be neglected as a diagnostic tool since it was shown to establish the diagnosis in one quarter of all patients (25%) while the significance of BS in adenocarcinoma should be emphasized given its frequent peripheral location that does not allow obtaining tissue for histological diagnosis. ER -