The diagnostic usefulness of aspiration cytology of resected specimen for small lung tumor showing ground grass opacity

Using an intraoperative cytological procedure, we improved the diagnosis of small lung tumors showing ground grass opacity. We punctured the center of the lesion in a resected lung using an injection needle, harvested cells in the syringe, and observed the obtained cells rapidly microscopically. This technique is useful for checking whether cancer cells were contained in the resected lung without having to cut the tumor during intraoperative evaluation, which would have made it difficult to evaluate pleural or stromal invasion in the postoperative assessment of tumor aggressiveness.