Bronchoscopically-guided conformal radiation therapy for radiographically occult lung carcinoma

Radiographically occult lung carcinoma has a very good prognosis after comp lete surgical resection. In medically inoperable patients three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy cannot be performed, as computed tomography sc an images fail to localize the disease. Presented here is an original techn ique of marking radiographically occult tumors by fiberoptic bronchoscopy, applied on four patients. No short-term complications were recorded. All th e patients are alive, with no evidence of disease, after a mean follow-up o f 15 months. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.