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. 2024 Sep;76(5):1909-1918.
doi: 10.1007/s13304-024-01777-8. Epub 2024 Mar 11.

Endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration: effectiveness and accuracy in non-small cell lung cancer staging

Maria Giovanna Mastromarino #  1 , Elena Guerrini #  2   3 , Giacomo Rabazzi  1   4 , Diana Bacchin  5   4 , Alessandro Picchi  5 , Olivia Fanucchi  5 , Vittorio Aprile  1 , Stylianos Korasidis  1 , Greta Alì  4   6 , Alessandro Ribechini  5 , Marco Lucchi  1   4 , Marcello Carlo Ambrogi  1   4
Affiliations

Endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration: effectiveness and accuracy in non-small cell lung cancer staging

Maria Giovanna Mastromarino et al. Updates Surg. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Introduction: Endobronchial ultrasound-transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) has a cardinal role in the diagnosis and staging of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), providing an accurate nodal staging in a less invasive way than surgical biopsy. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of EBUS-TBNA in the pre-operative NSCLC mediastinal staging, as well as to evaluate EBUS-TBNA specificity and sensibility in our cohort.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of NSCLC patients who underwent EBUS-TBNA followed by major pulmonary resection between January 2020 and December 2022. EBUS-TBNA was performed in patients with NSCLC (central T ≤ 3 cm, peripheral/central T > 3 cm), following the ESTS guidelines. The target nodes were selected on the basis of their radiologic/metabolic characteristics. Each procedure was conducted together with rapid on-site cytological evaluation (ROSE).

Results: Twenty-five patients were included (M/F = 17/8). At least three needle passages on each target lymph node were performed. No complications during or after the procedures occurred. We found a 100% correspondence between ROSE on the sampled nodes and postoperative pathologic findings. An upstaging occurred in three cases (12%) because of the involvement of stations 5 and 6 (not accessible via EBUS), while the only case of downstaging (N2 → N0, 4%) was probably due to intercurrent neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In all cases, EBUS-TBNA has proved to achieve a diagnostic procedure on the target nodes.

Conclusions: EBUS-TBNA is a safe and effective procedure that offers high sensitivity and specificity when performed together with ROSE, which improves the accuracy of sampling. Doubt on nodal stations 5 and 6 involvement should be settled by other techniques.

Keywords: Endobronchial ultrasound; Mediastinal staging; Non-small cell lung cancer; Rapid on-site cytological evaluation; Transbronchial needle aspiration.

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