Head and neck cancer patients with pulmonary nodules: Value and role of CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsies

✍ Scribed by Benoît Mesurolle; François Mignon; Philippe Meingan; Christian Domenge; Manuella Vasile; Robert Sigal

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 81 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1043-3074
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.10303

✦ Synopsis

Background:

To evaluate transthoracic needle aspiration biopsies of pulmonary lesions in patients with squamous cell cancer of head and neck.

Methods:

Retrospective series of 85 patients with squamous cell cancer of head and neck cancer and pulmonary nodules who underwent ct-guided needle aspiration biopsy.

Results:

Diagnostic samples were obtained in 85% of patients. there were 8 benign and 77 malignant lesions. among the 73 proved cases, 4 were false-negative cases. ct-guided biopsy had an accuracy of 81%, a sensitivity of 94%, and a negative predictive value of 60%. accuracies were 68% for lesions of 20 mm or smaller and 89% for lesions greater than 20 mm. in a subset of 45 solitary lesions, among 30 positive biopsies, 15 were categorized as primary malignancies, 3 as metastatic, and 12 as indeterminate malignancies.

Conclusions:

In head and neck cancer patients, the prevalence of thoracic malignancies is high when a pulmonary lesion is detected. ct-guided biopsy of pulmonary lesion is an accurate procedure. however, a third of positive biopsies were categorized as indeterminate malignancies.