
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This study was looking at two different types of bronchoscopy to screen for lung cancer in people who are at high risk of the disease.
Treatment is most successful for lung cancer that is found at an early stage. Unfortunately, most people have advanced disease when they are diagnosed. So doctors are looking at new ways to help find lung cancer earlier in people who are at high risk.
This study compared two different ways of carrying out a bronchoscopy, a test used to diagnose lung cancer. The standard way used white light to look at your airways (). The new way used white light and blue light. This is called a fluorescence bronchoscopy (FB).
The researchers studied pictures and samples of cells (biopsies) taken during both these tests. They hoped that FB would find early cancers that may not have been seen using a standard bronchoscopy.
The researchers found that fluorescence bronchoscopy showed up changes to cells in the bronchus more often than standard bronchoscopy.
93 people took part in the study. They were all between 40 and 75 years old and had smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day for at least 20 years.
Everybody had a standard bronchoscopy, a fluorescence bronchoscopy (FB), and biopsies taken from their airways
The standard bronchoscopies suggested there were changes in only one person. That person’s biopsy showed they didn’t actually have any cell changes. Researchers call this a ‘false positive’
Any type of screening test must be accurate. Researchers call the ability of a test to correctly show up changes ‘sensitivity’. In this study, FB was a lot more sensitive than standard bronchoscopy at picking up changes to the cells in the bronchus that could go on to become lung cancer.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Professor K. Moghissi
Laser Trust Fund
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.