Cytodiagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumor of the lung by transthoracic fine-needle aspiration

To evaluate our experience with the cytodiagnosis of primary lung cancers by transthoracic fine-needle aspiration (TFNA), 106 bronchogenic carcinomas (BC) and 6 neuroendocrine tumors of the lung (NTL) with adequate needle aspirates were reviewed. The cytodiagnostic accuracy rates of BCs were 75.5%, 72%, 100%, 53%, and 50% for bronchogenic adenocarcinomas, squamous-cell carcinomas, small-cell carcinomas, large-cell carcinomas, and mixed carcinomas, respectively. Of the 6 NTLs, 4 typical carcinoid tumors (CT) were correctly diagnosed, 1 atypical CT was wrongly identified as small-cell carcinoma, and 1 large-cell NTL was mistaken for an adenocarcinoma.