OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate radiological and bronchoscopic aspects of endobronchial metastases (EBMs) from extrapulmonary cancers and the correlation of EBM with findings of integrated positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) findings.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent bronchoscopic evaluation between January 2013 and December were analyzed retrospectively. Patients with endobronchial lesions in the airways and histopathologically diagnosed with extrapulmonary cancer metastasis were included in the study.
RESULTS: A total of 16 patients with EBM who underwent bronchoscopic biopsies were evaluated. The patients consisted of 10 (62.5%) females and 6 (37.5%) males and the mean age was 61.8 ± 9.1. The common primary cancer related to EBM was breast 9 (%56.4). The mean interval from diagnosis of primary cancer to EBM was 55.1 ± 48.5 (1–180) months. A total of 13 (81.2%) cases were assessed with the PET-CT report. The mean SUVmaxvalue of the lung lesions was calculated as 9.8 ± 4.3. According to PET-CT, 92.4% of the cases had extrapulmonary metastasis. The mean survival duration from diagnosis of EBM was 8.5 ± 6.7 (1–21) months in 9 deceased patients.
CONCLUSION: The most frequent extrapulmonary primary tumors with endobronchial metastasis were breast and the mean survival time was usually short. It was reported that most cases were multimetastatic. It was concluded that PET-CT can play a role in identifying the EBM and other organ metastasis and was important tool in planning the treatment.