Bronchoalveolar lavage in lung cancer: does it increase the positive yield of bronchoscopy?

Background Cells obtained from bronchoalveolar space can give a definite diagnosis in malignancies. The present study aimed to assess the diagnostic yield of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in lung cancer and to assess the relationship of its yield with radiology, endoscopy, and pathological subtypes. Patients and methods A retrospective study with re-revision of saved bronchoscopic video, computed tomography (CT) films, and pathology slides was conducted on 101 patients with definite bronchogenic carcinoma diagnosed over 4 years. Results BAL positive yield was found in 42.4% of cases, and its yield coincided with other bronchoscopic sampling methods in 43.6% of cases. Regarding CT findings, the BAL positive yield was significantly higher in peripheral lesions (79.1%), mass size more than or equal to 3 cm (62.8%), CT bronchus sign (46.5%), hilar and/or mediastinal adenopathy (86.0%), and consolidation (51.2%). The most common bronchoscopic abnormality in patients with BAL positive yield was submucosal lesions (83.3%). The adenocarcinoma (48.8%) and bronchoalveolar carcinoma (11.6%) were the histopathological types having significant BAL positive yield. The most significant predictive factors for BAL positive yield were mediastinal adenopathy, endobronchial lesions, nonvisible lesions, adenocarcinoma type, submucosal lesions, CT bronchus sign, mass size more than or equal to 3 cm, peripheral lesions, and concomitant use of bronchial brushing. BAL had 40.3% sensitivity, 51.7% specificity, 67.4% positive predictive value, 25.9% negative predictive value, and 43.6% diagnostic accuracy in bronchogenic carcinoma. Conclusion BAL increases the positive yield of bronchoscopy by 13.9% with fair diagnostic performance, especially in peripherally locating nonvisible lesions. Although tissue biopsy remains the gold standard sampling, clinicians might rely on BAL cytology for diagnosis of lung cancer in some patients.