Clinical Impact of Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy in Patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Malignancies. A Prospective Study

Abstract

If EUS-FNAB was performed only in cases where a positive malignant result would change patient management, then approximately one out of four patients with upper gastrointestinal tract cancer would require a biopsy. With this approach the actual clinical impact of EUS-FNAB ranged from 13% in esophageal cancer to 30% in pancreatic cancer. EUS-FNAB plays a limited, but very important clinical role in the assessment of upper gastrointestinal tract cancer.