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.
Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.