[Commentary on "Diagnostic value of surgical lung biopsies for diffuse parenchymal lung disease: the change of disease spectrum in the past 28 years in a single institution in China"].

In the past 30 years, the diagnosis of diffuse interstitial lung disease (DPLD) in China has made great progress,and the understanding of the disease has been significantly improved. More and more diseases have been diagnosed by combining clinical, laboratory examination and typical high-resolution computed tomography(HRCT). In addition, the application of multidisciplinary discussion increased diagnosis rate, and the number of surgical lung biopsies was on a decreasing trend. However, lung biopsy was still required for some DPLD diseases. Different diseases required different lung biopsy methods. Some diseases with characteristic pathological features can be diagnosed by small biopsy specimens. Transbronchial cryobiopsy has a higher diagnostic rate than traditional bronchoscopic lung biopsy. Overall, the number of lung biopsy for DPLD is relatively low in China, and the development of non-tumor respiratory pathology is relatively lagging behind, and there is still the phenomenon of empirical hormone therapy in clinic. So many aspects on diagnosis and standardized treatment of DPLD still require continuous efforts to improve in the future.