• Susan C van 't Westeinde, Nanda Horeweg, René M Vernhout, Harry J M Groen, Jan-Willem J Lammers, Carla Weenink, Kristiaan Nackaerts, Matthijs Oudkerk, Willem Mali, Frederik B Thunnissen, Harry J de Koning, and Rob J van Klaveren.
• Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. s.vantwesteinde@erasmusmc.nl
• Chest. 2012 Aug 1;142(2):377-84.

BackgroundUp to 50% of the participants in CT scan lung cancer screening trials have at least one pulmonary nodule. To date, the role of conventional bronchoscopy in the workup of suspicious screen-detected pulmonary nodules is unknown. If a bronchoscopic evaluation could be eliminated, the cost-effectiveness of a screening program could be enhanced and the potential harms of bronchoscopy avoided.MethodsAll consecutive participants with a positive result on a CT scan lung cancer screening between April 2004 and December 2008 were enrolled. The diagnostic sensitivity and negative predictive value were calculated at the level of the suspicious nodules. In 95% of the nodules, the gold standard for the outcome of the bronchoscopy was based on surgical resection specimens.ResultsA total of 318 suspicious lesions were evaluated by bronchoscopy in 308 participants. The mean ± SD diameter of the nodules was 14.6 ± 8.7 mm, whereas only 2.8% of nodules were > 30 mm in diameter. The sensitivity of bronchoscopy was 13.5% (95% CI, 9.0%-19.6%); the specificity, 100%; the positive predictive value, 100%; and the negative predictive value, 47.6% (95% CI, 41.8%-53.5%). Of all cancers detected, 1% were detected by bronchoscopy only and were retrospectively invisible on both low-dose CT scan and CT scan with IV contrast.ConclusionConventional white-light bronchoscopy should not be routinely recommended for patients with positive test results in a lung cancer screening program.

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