Transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy: accuracy of cytologic typing of malignant neoplasms.

A correlation was made between the cytologic and the histologic diagnoses of 162 patients who underwent transthoracic fine-needle aspiration biopsy in whom histologic proof of the nature of the aspirated lesion was available. Compared to the histologic diagnosis, the specific cell-type cytologic diagnosis was usually in agreement when reported as squamous cell carcinoma (86%), adenocarcinoma (86%), or small cell anaplastic carcinoma(86%). In patients with a known extrapulmonary primary malignant neoplasm, the cytologic specimen was extremely helpful in identifying a new pulmonary lesion as metastatic rather than as a primary lesion in the lung. These results warrant the more extensive use of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in patients with pulmonary neoplasms in whom the specific cell type of the malignant neoplasm has important implications in therapy.