Increased number of cancer cells in bronchial washing fluid detected by combining conventional cytology and high-resolution flow cytometry

Abstract

The present study was performed to improve early lung cancer diagnosis in bronchial washing fluid, thereby increasing the diagnostic sensitivity of bronchoscopy by means of high-resolution flow cytometry (FC). We combined dual-parameter DNA/protein FC and conventional cytology in bronchial washing fluid samples from 112 patients with neoplastic and non-neoplastic lung diseases and found 43% of histologically confirmed tumor cases to be cytologically positive; 63% of the tumor samples were aneuploid, 52% of the aneuploid cases were cytologically positive and 48% were negative. In the negative cases, FC was an independent diagnostic factor. In 32% of the cases, FC also failed to detect abnormalities. However, the combination of both techniques increased the sensitivity in detecting neoplastic cells to 73%. Furthermore, simultaneous DNA/protein analysis allowed the recognition of aneuploid cell lines not detectable by single DNA measurement. Identification of aneuploid subpopulations by dual-parameter analysis in cytologically negative one-parameter FC "diploid" samples assumes an important diagnostic value. Dual-parameter DNA/protein FC is a valuable technique that increases the diagnostic yield of bronchoscopy with no risk for the patient and a low additional cost.

DNA/protein flow cytometry as a predictive marker of malignancy in dysplasia-free Barrett's esophagus: Thirteen-year follow-up study on a cohort of patients

“…The present data demonstrated that the detection of cells with increased DNA fluorescence can be improved using DNA/protein measurements simultaneously. This fact is well documented by our previous results, which clearly showed that a second FC parameter increases the detectability of small DNA abnormalities (22,31,32). The fact that such small near diploid clones were also observed during follow-up (data not shown) makes them very unlikely to be due to artifacts or to technical problems.…”

Diagnóstico e estadiamento do câncer de pulmão

“…São elas: a biópsia transbrônqui-ca e a punção aspirativa transbrônquica por agulha (17) . A associação de todos esses métodos aumenta de maneira significativa o rendimento do exame (18) .…”