Incidence of pleural recurrence after computed tomography-guided needle biopsy in stage I lung cancer

A risk of tumor seeding after percutaneous needle biopsy has been reported in various organs, including the lung. This study retrospectively evaluated the proportion of ipsilateral pleural recurrence after computed tomography-guided needle biopsy (CTNB) in p-stage I lung cancer patients. Of the 321 patients diagnosed with p-stage I lung cancer, 124 underwent CTNB before surgery, while 197 underwent non-CTNB procedures, including bronchoscopic biopsy in 188 patients and thoracoscopic wedge resection in 9. These patients were retrospectively analyzed. While the tumor size was significantly larger in the non-CTNB group (25 ± 9 mm) in comparison to the CTNB group (19 ± 9 mm) (p