Prospective comparisons support the use of navigational bronchoscopy

Individuals with pulmonary nodules detected through lung cancer screening or incidentally often require lung biopsy sampling to differentiate between malignant and benign lesions. Navigational bronchoscopy and CT-guided transthoracic biopsy are both widely used for this purpose, although the comparative performance of these two approaches has been uncertain. Now data from the randomized VERITAS trial demonstrate the non-inferior diagnostic accuracy of navigational bronchoscopy as well as a more favourable safety profile.

A total of 234 adults with a single peripheral indeterminate pulmonary nodule of 10–30 mm in diameter with a minimum pretest risk of malignancy of 10% were randomly assigned (1:1) to undergo navigational bronchoscopy or transthoracic needle biopsy. Non-inferior diagnostic accuracy was the primary outcome.