5-year, multisite Mayo Clinic study finds high diagnostic accuracy, low complication rates - and a shift toward earlier-stage detection
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - As lung cancer screening identifies an estimated 1.6 million suspicious lung nodules each year in the U.S. alone, physicians face a challenge. Most peripheral pulmonary lesions are benign, yet the malignant minority represent the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.
A five-year, multisite study from Mayo Clinic suggests robotic-assisted bronchoscopy may provide a less invasive and more precise approach to diagnosing lung cancer.
The study evaluated 2,115 lung lesions in 1,904 patients across Mayo Clinic campuses in Jacksonville; Phoenix; and Rochester, Minnesota, between 2019 and 2024. Researchers reported 85% sensitivity for malignancy and 76.9% accuracy, or a strict diagnostic yield, under newly standardized national criteria. They also reported a complication rate of 2.8%.
Since adoption of robotic bronchoscopy, the proportion of lung cancers diagnosed at an early stage at Mayo Clinic increased from 46% in 2019 to nearly 69% by mid-2024. While lung cancer was caught earlier, diagnoses at advanced stages decreased from 54% to 31% in 2024.
"Lung cancer survival depends heavily on early detection," says Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy, M.D., the James C. and Sarah K. Kennedy Dean of Research at Mayo Clinic in Florida and the lead author of this Mayo Clinic Proceedings study. "Technologies that allow us to diagnose and even treat disease earlier - and with fewer complications - can help improve survival."
