Effect of forceps biopsy on bronchial washing results in patients with endoscopically visible lung tumors

Enhancing diagnostic bronchoscopy techniques is paramount for lung cancer detection; bronchial washing is one of those modalities. However, there is controversy regarding the optimum sequence of performing this procedure in relation to biopsy. The present study aimed to assess the most effective sequence of bronchial washing in relation to bronchial biopsy for diagnosing lung cancer. The present study was a single‑center prospective study carried out over a period of 18 months. The study included patients >18 years of age with mass or suspected lesions on a chest computed tomography and an endoscopically visible mass. They were randomly assigned to a bronchial washing before the forceps biopsy group and a bronchial washing after the forceps biopsy group. Bronchial washing and forceps biopsy were performed under cytological and histopathological analysis, respectively. The present study included 50 patients with a mean age of 72 years. The males comprised 36 (72%) of the patients. The pre‑biopsy bronchial wash (pre‑BW) yielded positive results in 21 (42%) patients, and the post‑biopsy bronchial wash (post‑BW) yielded positive results in 23 (46%) patients. The biopsy results revealed that 22 (44%) of the cases were squamous cell carcinoma, 18 (36%) were adenocarcinoma, 8 (16%) were small cell lung carcinoma, 1 (2%) was acinar cell carcinoma, and 1 (2%) was not malignant. A comparison of pre‑BW and post‑BW revealed a statistically significant difference between them (P‑value <0.001). Pre- and post-BW may affect the yield of diagnostic outcomes for endoscopically visible lung tumors. However, additional research, such as studies using larger sample sizes or meta-analyses, is required to determine the efficacy of this approach.