[The role of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary cancer].

Cancer of the lung is becoming increasingly common. In the U.S., it has the highest mortality of the neoplastic diseases, well ahead of cancer of the colon and rectum. Surgical and/or complementary management is poorly effective because it comes too late. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential, therefore. Preclinical diagnosis may be possible radiographically in certain fortunate cases, but this is never an early diagnosis. The latter is only possible through active bronchial cytology (bronchial brushing, selective washing, PBS) during and after flexible fibrobronchoscopy, which can be carried out under local anaesthesia at the outpatient level and causes very little distress to the patient. Data from a personal series are cited in support of the view that cytodiagnosis should be routinely employed in subjects at high risk (heavy smokers, persons with chronic bronchitis, emphysema, etc.).