EBUS-TBNA proves effective for tumor molecular analysis in lung cancer

Background and objectives

Tumor molecular analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS) is the standard of care for guiding lung cancer treatment. Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is a minimally invasive technique used to sample mediastinal lymph nodes for diagnosing and staging lung cancer. This study aimed to determine if EBUS-TBNA provided adequate tissue samples for NGS.

Methods

We evaluated EBUS-TBNA samples from adult advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients who had both EBUS-TBNA and liquid biopsy samples analyzed by NGS between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2021. Additionally, we compared the results with those from liquid biopsies performed on these patients.

Results

Among the 44 evaluated patients, 43% were male, with a median age of 66 years at diagnosis. Seventy-five percent were smokers, 79.5% were White, 6.8% were Black, and 9.1% were Asian. EBUS-TBNA samples were sufficient for NGS in 95.5% of cases. The median turnaround time for EBUS-TBNA NGS was 38.5 days compared with eight days for NGS in liquid biopsies. Actionable genetic aberrations were detected in 71% of patients.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrated that EBUS-TBNA provided sufficient tissue for identifying actionable genetic aberrations in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.