In this exploratory adaptive clinical trial the investigators will examine the diagnostic yield of a combination of commercially available imaging and navigation techniques for reaching peripheral lung lesions. The two investigated techniques will herein be the rEBUS imaging modality combined with augmented fluoroscopy based virtual bronchoscopy navigation. Confirmation of reaching the lung lesion will be by means of CT (fluoroscopic) imaging. Rapid On-Site Evaluation (ROSE) of cytopathology will be used for obtaing a per-procedural outcome on tissue biopsy representativeness. The study will replace the current conventional standard TBB procedure (fluoroscopy and rEBUS guided bronchoscopy) in the endoscopy suite. Consecutive patients will be included on the MITeC hybrid operating room (needed to monitor patient safety and CT availability). All data will be prospectively collected. In case tissue biopsy is found to be malignant or benign, it will be termed representative. In case tissue biopsy is found to be non-representative (=blood, anatomical lung tissue, unreachable), conventional follow-up of CT guided TTNA, follow-up monitoring and/or surgical biopsy will serve as golden standard for obtaining tissue diagnosis. For verification of reaching the target lesion, another study parameter of interest, (cb)CT imaging will be performed for verification that instruments are within the nodule (per-procedurally available).
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT ID NCT03274609).