Clinical and Molecular Findings in Patients With Cervical/Supraclavicular Metastasis From Non-small-cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

Despite the availability of highly effective endoscopy-based and computed tomography (CT)-based biopsy procedures, up to 50% of patients with advanced lung cancer potentially eligible for targeted therapies or immunotherapy do not have access to a diagnosis or to a thorough molecular profiling for different reasons. Enlarged and/or positron emission tomography (PET) positive cervical/supraclavicular lymph nodes (CSLs) are ideal targets for a minimally invasive diagnosis of lung cancer through a percutaneous ultrasound-guided biopsy (US-NAB). However, the prevalence of metastatic involvement of CSLs in patients with advanced lung cancer was never specifically assessed. Furthermore, the possible association of malignant CSLs involvement with molecular status was never investigated, unlike what was done for several other metastatic sites.