A transbronchial lung biopsy cryoprobe 1.1 mm in diameter outperformed standard 2.0-mm forceps for diagnostic yield, the FROSTBITE-2 randomized trial showed.
Diagnostic yield came in nearly 10 percentage points higher with transbronchial biopsy done using the Erbe Elektromedizin cryoprobe than with forceps (88.6% vs 78.8%, P=0.003), reported Jeffrey Thiboutot, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) annual meeting in Orlando.
The difference was particularly great among patients with pulmonary nodules or masses (83.2% vs 70.1%, P=0.04) in the findings, which were published simultaneously in JAMA.
With no difference seen in safety endpoints, "all of that together shows that this is really ready for prime time," Thiboutot said. "This is ready for routine use in your bronchoscopy suites."
"This is actually a reasonably high impact procedure that pulmonologists across the world are doing with some risk to patients," said ATS session study commentator George T. O'Connor, MD, of Boston University and a JAMA editor. "And if it in fact is a better way to do it, this may be a very important message that is going to have a big impact."
