Safety and efficacy of transbronchial cryobiopsy for elderly lung cancer patients

BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Table 3 Diagnosis and initial treatment

				Elderly (≥ 80) (n = 20)	Younger (< 80) (n = 76)	P value*
Histological diagnoses, n (%)						0.649
	Adenocarcinoma			17 (85)	67 (88.2)
	Squamous cell carcinoma			3 (15)	7 (9.2)
	NSCLC-NOS			0 (0)	2 (2.6)
Diagnostic yield, n (%)				19 (95.0)	68 (89.5)	0.679
	Cryobiopsy alone			11/11	37/40
	Combined with forceps biopsy			8/9	31/36
			Diagnosis via cryobiopsy only	2	2
			Diagnosis via both methods	6	29
Stage, n						0.393
		I/II/III/IV/unknown		9/3/3/4/1	33/7/15/21/0
Initial treatment, n (%)						0.042
		Surgery		7 (35)	40 (52.6)
		Radiation		5 (25)	7 (9.2)
		Chemotherapy		4 (20)	24 (31.6)
		Best supportive care		4 (20)	5 (6.6)

* Fisher’s exact test P value
Abbreviations: NSCLC-NOS, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer - Not Otherwise Specified, Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed with PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx (Dako/Agilent, Tokyo, Japan). PD-L1 expression testing was not conducted in 2 elderly cases and 14 younger cases. In all remaining cases where bronchoscopic samples were submitted, PD-L1 testing was successfully evaluated, with 62 younger patients and 18 elderly patients assessed. Among the younger group, 32 patients were PD-L1 negative (Tumor Proportion Score (TPS) < 1%), 17 were low-positive (TPS 1–49%), and 13 were high-positive (TPS ≥ 50%). In the elderly group, six patients were PD-L1 negative, nine were low-positive, and three were high-positive (Fig. 1)

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