[Bronchoscopy in the post-therapeutic monitoring of patients with bronchial carcinoma].
A study of 970 patients treated for bronchogenic carcinoma (operation, cytostatic therapy, irradiation) reveal that only 122 (12.5%) were evaluated by the bronchoscopy. Among 47 (38.5%) out of 122 patients recidivation was confirmed (cytology or histology). The efficacy of radiology and sputum cytology is poor. Only 22/47 (47%) had radiologic evidence of recidivation and 18/47 (38%) had positive sputum cytology. Radiology and sputum cytology reveal recidivation in 27/47 (57%) patients. It means that bronchoscopy is the method of choice in the posttherapeutic monitoring of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma.