Researchers find less invasive, highly accura...(ch doctor evaluated each test without kn...),Health

In all, 42 malignant lymph nodes were found in the patients. The researchers then looked at the results of the tests both individually and in combination. The combination of EUS and EBUS detected 93 percent of 42 malignant lymph nodes. The three remaining malignant nodes were found during surgery. Wallace said. One was next to the aorta, the bodys main artery, so it was unsafe to biopsy, and the other two were very small cancers missed by the needle sampling, he says.

The combination of EUS and EBUS allows for a near complete medical staging for patients with suspected lung cancer, Dr. Wallace says.

Estimated sensitivities for the other procedures were: EUS (69 percent); EBUS (69 percent), TBNA (36 percent), EUS and TBNA (79 percent); and EBUS and TBNA (76 percent).

Although Mayo Clinic Jacksonville routinely uses the EUS-EBUS combination to stage lung cancer, Dr. Wallace says not that many physicians have been trained in these techniques to date, and that their use requires good integration between all of the different specialties involved in the care of lung cancer patients.

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