Achieving Molecular Profiling in Pleural Biopsies: A Multicenter, Retrospective Cohort Study

Sundaralingam A, Aujayeb A, Akca B, Tiedeman C, George V, Carling M, Brown J, Banka R, Addala D, Bedawi EO, Hallifax RJ, Iqbal B, Denniston P, Tsakok MT, Kanellakis NI, Vafai-Tabrizi F, Bergman M, Funk GC, Benamore RE, Wrightson JM, Rahman NM

Chest. 2023 May;163(5):1328-1339.

What is the key question?

  • To determine the efficacy of different pleural biopsy techniques (medical thoracoscopy, CT-guided pleural biopsies and ultrasound-guided pleural biopsies) in providing adequate molecular profiling in patients with malignant pleural disease

What is the bottom line?

  • Procedures had been performed in 183 patients in this international multicenter study
  • Medical thoracoscopy provided the highest successful molecular testing (95%) compared to CT-biopsies (86%) and ultrasound-biopsies (77%)
  • There was a strong correlation between size of samples obtained from the different techniques, to successfully performing molecular analysis
  • Thoracoscopy had the highest complications, predominantly due to post-procedural pain

Why read on?

  • To understand implications and considerations when deciding on biopsy technique choice in patients who require further invasive sampling for molecular profiling of their malignancy
  • The authors detail further analyses to determine other factors associated with diagnostic yields