Would you assume a diagnosis of metastatic recurrence and initiate therapy for a patient with history of locally advanced NSCLC treated with definitive chemoradiation who develops multiple enlarging lung nodules that are too small to biopsy?

Topics: Thoracic Malignancies • Medical Oncology • NCI-CCC Tumor Board Question • Yale • NCI-CCC Thoracic Tumor Board Question

Is there an advantage to early diagnosis and intervention versus observation until the nodules are amenable to percutaneous biopsy?

Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution

I don't believe that I can point to a study that will answer this question, so will revert to oncologic principles 101, namely that absent exceptional circumstances, we ought to biopsy first recurrence. In the question posed, that is following definitive (curative intent) chemoradiation (and n...

Comments

Medical Oncologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center
Very much agree with @Gregory A. Otterson's citati...

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