Improving the accuracy of FNA lung biopsies in a community hospital.

7639 Background: Until 2008 it was believed that outcomes in NSCLC were independent of histologic type. Until then, all doublet combinations of platinum compounds showed comparable efficacy in the treatment of NSCLC, and there was no urge for pathologists to differentiate the specific histologic subtypes. There is now data to support improved efficacy with agents such as pemetrexed in non-squamous cell carcinoma or gemcitabine in squamous cell histology. We evaluated the rate of non-specific NSCLC diagnosis in FNA biopsies in our institution before and after raising awareness among our pathologists and interventional radiologists and making changes in the immunoperoxidase panel used in lung cancer samples. Methods: We evaluated all FNA biopsies of lung cancer patients obtained in 2008 classifying them in adenocarcinoma; squamous cell ca; SCLC; NSCLC NOS and neuroendocrine carcinoma. For 2009 some changes were implemented by pathology including: increased awareness of the therapeutic importance of a specif...