Cytology positive pleural aspirations: sufficient to guide treatment?

Conclusion: Pleural cytology is sufficient to guide oncological treatments in over half malignant pleural effusion (MPE) cases, and appears more likely to be sufficient in lung and haematological cancers. In cases of recurrent breast and pelvic cancers, cytology may be sufficient, but in new breast or gynaecological cancers, histological samples appear to be necessary. This data may have implications for early use of invasive diagnostic methods in MPE according to likely primary source.
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Pleural and mediastinal malignancies Source Type: research