ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the value of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in the early diagnosis of non-central small cell lung cancer.Methods 141 patients wereselected from July 1999 to June 2017,who were diagnosed with small cell lung cancer (stage N2 and N3).They were divided into two groups according to the approach of obtaining histopathological tissuefor diagnosis.49 cases in the experimental group were obtained by EBUS-TBNA,92 cases in the control group were done by video assisted thoracic surgery (40 cases,43.5％),mediastinoscopy (1 case,1.1％),and open procedure (51 case,55.4％).Survival outcome,time of waiting for the treatment and lengthof stay were analyzed.Results There werel09 males,32 females,the range of age is from 16 to 79 years old [(56.21 ± 11.48) years].62 lesions located in the upper lobe,12 in the middle lobe,56 in the lower lobe,11 in the middle-lower/-upper lobes.Considering the T stage,there are 7 cases of T1,61 cases of T2,45 cases of T3,and 26cases of T4,2 patients with Tx stage.Compared with conventional approach,EBUS-TBNA saved 10.78 days from admission to the time of receiving treatment [(4.62 ± 0.66)days vs.(15.40 ± 1.61) days,P ＜ 0.05],and saved 18.13 days of length of stay [(5.30 ± 0.76) days vs.(23.43 ± 2.44) days,P ＜0.05].5-year survival rate was 31.0％ for traditional group and 27.5％ for EBUS-TBNA group,there was no significant difference between two groups(P =0.308).Conclusion EBUS-TBNA couldsave the waiting days from admission to the time of receiving treatment,and also shorten the total length of stay.EBUS-TBNA was more efficient than conventional approaches (VATS,mediastinoscopy or open procedure) for diagnosing non-central small cell lung cancer with enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes.