What are some common non-surgical procedures used to diagnose lung cancer?
The diagnose of lung cancer requires a tissue or cytologic diagnosis. Another words, seeing the cancer cells underneath a microscope and seeing that this is definitely cancer. There is a variety of ways that we go about making a diagnosis and these can include bronchoscopy, where a slender camera tube is inserted into the airway, and we look in the airway and a needle is then used to biopsy the lung tissue and the abnormality. Other ways to do this is to use a CT guided or a radiologic guided biopsy of the lung tumor or lung mass across the chest. And this is done by a radiologist. It is also an outpatient procedure and diagnosis can be made that way. And finally, there are other non invasive ways to make a diagnosis and these things can include thorocentisis, where a needle can be inserted into the plural space which is the space between the lining of the lung and the chest wall. And if there is fluid there then that fluid can be sent off to look for cytology for the presence of any c
