Diagnosis and radio-guided surgery of lung nodules

Abstract

The detection of pulmonary nodules has increased in recent decades due to the introduction of lung cancer screening programs and the massive use of routine chest computed tomography in patients with malignant neoplasms. Percutaneous biopsy cannot always characterize these nodules, making surgical biopsy sometimes necessary, often requiring presurgical localization. Radioguided occult lesion localization (ROLL) described for breast lesions was first applied in the resection of pulmonary nodules in 2000, becoming an alternative to other presurgical localization techniques such as hook-wire. The technique provides a high detection rate with minimal morbidity, enhancing multidisciplinary work with specialists in Radiology and Chest Surgery. The present paper describes the different pre-surgical localization techniques currently available, the methodological procedure of the ROLL technique and the results collected over 20 years of experience.