[Intrapulmonary tumor cell spread and intraoperative pleural lavage as prognostic factors in bronchial carcinoma?]

Tumor cell detection in lavage fluids might be a prognostic factor in solid tumors. Therefore, 342 patients with the first manifestation of lung cancer underwent intraoperative pleural lavage (lavage I = after opening the chest; lavage II = after resection of lung cancer). Tumor cells were found in lavage I in 132 patients (38.6%), in 99 of them also in lavage II. We found tumor cells in only nine cases in lavage II cytologically. The cumulative 5 year survival rate of non-small cell lung cancer in stage I (n = 164) was 25.9% if lavage was positive (lavages I and II, n = 47), and 69.2% if lavage was negative (n = 117) (p < 0.05). Additionally, we performed tissue cultures of tumor-free parenchyma in 23 cases of lung cancer. In 16 cases (69.6%), we detected tumor cells by histology and immunohistology. Cytologic tumor cell detection in intraoperative pleural lavage in lung cancer seems to be an additional prognostic factor and should be done when assessing the final tumor stage. A positive result should be added to the pTNM classification.