The Application Autofluorescent Bronchoscopy for the Detection of
Mucosal Lesion
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with a poor
five-year survival less than 20% in advanced disease. Although operable stage I or II
early lung cancer has a better prognosis of 70% five-year survival rate, the prompt
detection and diagnosis of early stage disease remains challenging.
One of the early detection tools of early-staged lung cancer for the population at
risk involves bronchoscopy technique. In the last two decades, the application of
autofluorescence detection along with the conventional white light bronchoscopy
(WLB) has pushed back the frontier for the diagnosis of early-staged lung cancer
which arises from the central bronchial mucosa.
Autofluorescent bronchoscopy (AFB) is an advanced technology which uses the
autofluorescent nature of bronchial mucosa to detect tiny and subtle superficial
lesions. Compared to WLB, AFB may better identify pre-invasive lesions, thereby
improving the diagnostic sensitivity for early-staged cancer and precancerous lesions.
However, the specificity varies across studies which remain an issue of controversy.
The current discussion will start from the mechanism of AFB and revolve around
the reports across different studies and the experience of the use of AFB in
Department of Thoracic Medicine of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.