Diagnostic efficiency and safety of bronchial needle aspiration for lymph node staging of non-small cell lung cancer in elderly patients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic efficiency and safety of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration(EBUS-TBNA)in lymph node staging of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)in elderly patients.Methods:Thirty-five patients aged ≥70 years and 58 patients aged 60-69 years with NSCLC receiving EBUS-TBNA in our hospital from March 2015 to December 2018 were enrolled.All patients underwent EBUS for all visible mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes, and those with enlarged lymph nodes(short axis ≥6 mm)were further examined with TBNA.The diagnostic efficiency and safety of EBUS-TBNA were analyzed.Results:The sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA was 0.94, the specificity was 1.00, the Yoden index was 0.94, the positive predictive value was 1.00, and the negative predictive value was 0.82.Tumor staging was changed in 20 patients after EBU-TBNA, resulting in changes in assessment on tumor resectability in 5 cases.EBUS-TBNA had excellent agreement with postoperative pathology in evaluating resectability(Kappa=0.95). The sensitivity and specificity were 1.00 and 0.97, respectively.The incidence of complications of EBUS-TNBA was 6.5%.The elderly group had a worse performance status( P<0.05)compared with the control group, but the complication rates(5.7% vs 6.9%, P>0.05)were similar between the two groups. Conclusions:EBUS-TBNA is highly effective and safe in the diagnosis of NSCLC in patients aged 70 and older.