Journal Article

Navigational Bronchoscopy or Transthoracic Needle Biopsy for Lung Nodules

Johnson, Joyce, D’Haese, Pierre-François, Mahmood, Kamran, Koyama, Tatsuki, Casey, Jonathan D., Katsis, James M., Avasarala, Sameer K., Salmon, Cristina, Wahidi, Momen M., Silvestri, Gerard A., Duke, Jennifer D., Cheng, George Z., Rickman, Otis B., Planz, Virginia B., Yarmus, Lonny, Roller, Lance, Kurman, Jonathan S., Grogan, Eric L., Lentz, Robert J., Hoopman, Todd C., Walston, Charla, Maldonado, Fabien, Low, See-Wei, Aboudara, Matthew C., Rahman, Najib M., Swanner, Briana, Shojaee, Samira, Frederick-Dyer, Katherine

2025

Overview

Each year, millions of pulmonary nodules are identified incidentally or through lung cancer screening, and many involve biopsy to distinguish cancer from benign processes. Both navigational bronchoscopy and computed tomography-guided transthoracic needle biopsy are commonly used in patients undergoing biopsies of peripheral pulmonary nodules, but the relative diagnostic accuracy of these two approaches is unclear. In this multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, noninferiority trial, we assigned patients with an intermediate-risk or high-risk peripheral pulmonary nodule measuring 10 to 30 mm in diameter to undergo navigational bronchoscopy or transthoracic needle biopsy at seven centers across the United States. The primary outcome was diagnostic accuracy, which was defined as the percentage of patients with biopsies that showed a specific diagnosis (cancer or a specific benign condition) that was confirmed to be accurate through 12 months of clinical follow-up (nonferiority margin, 10 percentage points). Secondary outcomes included procedural complications such as the occurrence of pneumothorax. Among the 234 patients included in the primary-outcome analysis (5 of whom were lost to follow-up), biopsy resulted in a specific diagnosis that was confirmed to be accurate through month 12 in 94 of 119 patients (79.0%) in the navigational bronchoscopy group and in 81 of 110 patients (73.6%) in the transthoracic needle biopsy group (absolute difference, 5.4 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, -6.5 to 17.2; P = 0.003 for noninferiority; P = 0.17 for superiority). Pneumothorax occurred in 4 of 121 patients (3.3%) in the navigational bronchoscopy group and in 32 of 113 patients (28.3%) in the transthoracic needle biopsy group and led to the placement of a chest tube, hospital admission, or both in 1 patient (0.8%) and 13 patients (11.5%), respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of navigational bronchoscopy was noninferior to that of transthoracic needle biopsy among patients with peripheral pulmonary nodules measuring 10 to 30 mm. (Funded by Medtronic and others; VERITAS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04250194.).

• Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society
• Subject: Accuracy / Aged / Biopsy / Biopsy, Needle - adverse effects / Biopsy, Needle - methods / Bronchoscopy / Bronchoscopy - adverse effects / Bronchoscopy - methods / Cancer screening / Cancer therapies / Chest Tubes - statistics & numerical data / Clinical Medicine / Clinical Medicine General / Computed tomography / Critical Care / Critical Care General / Data collection / Diagnosis / Female / General anesthesia / Hematology / Hospital-Based Clinical Medicine / Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data / Humans / Image-Guided Biopsy - adverse effects / Image-Guided Biopsy - methods / Lung - diagnostic imaging / Lung - pathology / Lung Cancer / Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis / Lung Neoplasms - pathology / Lung nodules / Male / Medical imaging / Medical records / Middle Aged / Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - diagnosis / Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - pathology / Oncology / Outpatient-Based Clinical Medicine / Patients / Pneumothorax / Pneumothorax - epidemiology / Pneumothorax - etiology / Pneumothorax - therapy / Pulmonary / Radiology / Radiology General / Solitary Pulmonary Nodule - diagnosis / Solitary Pulmonary Nodule - pathology / Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Ultrasonic imaging