Short summary

This prospective cohort study investigates the number of biopsies needed during bronchoscopy when investigating suspicious pulmonary lesions. This study will be conducted from March 2024 to January 2025 and is expected to include 100 patients.

Rationale

With approximately 2 million new cases and 1.8 million deaths yearly, lung cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer death. When diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer, small and localized tumors have a favorable prognosis with the possibility for surgical resection giving a 5-year survival rate of 70-90%. However, when diagnosed, most patients have advanced disease, making their 5-year survival rate poor. Therefore, early screening, detection, and diagnosis are major determinants of the survival rate among patients. In the past years, rapid advancement has allowed bronchoscopy to play a prominent role in diagnosing peripheral lung lesions with a low complication risk to the patient. The most appropriate diagnostic technique depends on tumor size, location, co-morbidities, and respiratory function. As screening becomes more common in the future it will lead to an increasing number of suspicious lung lesions and therefore diagnosis requires an exact and standardized diagnostic method. Therefore, the aim of this study investigate what number of biopsy samples is sufficient material for tumor marker testing as well as for making a diagnosis. We hypothesize that after collecting an unknown number of samples (five, ten, or more) a saturation curve will be reached, and the following samples will have no diagnostic significance.

Description of the cohort

Patients will be undergoing bronchoscopy at The Department of Respiratory Medicine at Odense University Hospital

Data and biological material

Biopsies from suspicious pulmonary lesions.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Research unit of Pathology, Odense University Hospital

• Tina Green, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Consultant and Chief Pathologist

Department of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Allergy, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland.

• Elzbieta Magdalena Grabczak, MD and PhD