Ten patients with endobronchial metastasis from primary breast cancer were found among 1200 fibreoptic bronchoscopies. Six of these patients had radiological signs suggesting bronchial obstruction. All the bronchoscopies were performed by us using the standard transnasal approach4 with either the Olympus BF5B2 or BFB2 fibreoptic bronchoscope. Topical anaesthesia with 1 % lignocaine was used. Atropine 0-8 mg intramuscularly was given before the procedure.Bronchial washings were collected with a standard suction trap and fixed in 50% ethyl alcohol before transport to the cytology laboratory. The method of Papanicolaou5 for fixing and staining