Pattern of transbroncial lung biopsy-proven lung malignancies in tertiary care hospital in north India: a clinicopathological study

Background:  The purpose of our study was to assess the pattern of transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) proven lung malignancies in our region. TBLB is an effective and low cost technique that can be easily employed to make the diagnosis of lung malignancies. Methods: In our centre, we analysed 120 cases of biopsy proven lung malignancy that underwent TBLB from January 2014 to May 2016. In all of these 120 cases, the commonest indication of TBLB was radiological opacity found on chest X-ray and/or CT scan. Results:  106 cases (88.3%) were males and 14 cases (11.7%) were females. Most of patients were more than 50 years of age. The histopathological analysis revealed squamous cell carcinoma as the most common lung malignancy (n = 88, 77.3%) followed by small cell carcinoma (n = 20, 16.7%), adenocarcinoma (n = 11, 9.2%) and 01 case of carcinoid tumour (0.8%). Commonest lung malignancy among females was adenocarcinoma (n = 8, 57.1%) and among males squamous cell carcinoma (n = 85, 80%). Conclusions:  TBLB thus is an important tool in making the diagnosis and histopathological classification of lung malignancies.