Usefulness of bronchoscopic examination during the treatment of small cell carcinoma of the lung

: The aim of the study was to evaluate the + bronchoscopy in monitoring of therapy in SCLC. Sixty patients were included in the study. The number of bronchoscopies ranged from 1 to 4. Evaluation was based on endoscopical analysis and pathomorphological examination of the biopsied material. In 30% of the studied patients bronchoscopy had decisive influence on therapy, irrespective of clinical and radiological criteria. The authors point out, that presence of cancer cells in bronchial aspirates, even in patients with normal endoscopical findings is a decisively poor prognostic factor.