Computed tomography-guided Tru-cut biopsy of lung mass, as an important diagnostic tool: Histopathological characteristics, age, sex distribution, and risk factors in Misurata Cancer Center, Libya

Background: Lung biopsies may be classified according to the method of access or by the reason for biopsy. Tru-cut biopsy is a simple, relatively safe, rapid, and reliable technique for the diagnosis of lung mass lesions, particularly with the aid of computed tomography (CT) scan. This procedure is commonly used worldwide to detect different kinds of lung tumors, but its usefulness in Libya is not yet studied. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of Tru-cut biopsy as a diagnostic method in lung tumors and also to determine the incidence of lung cancer in various ages and sex groups and in relation to smoking data. Patients and Methods: Retrospective study was done on 136 patients who underwent CT-guided Tru-cut biopsy from January 2012 to March 2015. The included patients have lung mass lesions suspected to be neoplastic according to chest radiograph and/or CT scan. Results: We found biopsies and histopathology reports of 136 cases. The patients’ age was from 20 to 85 years with the peak incidence in the sixth and seventh decades. The benign lesions were 18 (13.23%), and malignant lesions were 118 (86.76%) documented microscopically. The most common tumor was squamous cell carcinoma (25.17%), followed by adenocarcinoma (23.02%) and small cell lung carcinoma (17.26%). Nonspecific inflammation was found in 8.63%. Conclusion: CT-guided Tru-cut biopsy is a simple, safe, and reliable procedure with high diagnostic accuracy for the diagnosis and subtyping of lung cancer. The definitive result of malignancy is a base for correct decision for the patient's treatment after careful clinical correlation with performance state, radiology findings, and complete serological investigations