The material is available in each state of advancement and in different histological types of lung cancer, both non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer |
BAL may be performed during diagnosis, before treatment, and may be used to monitoring of treatment and complications |
The method is well standardised and reproducible, and the results can be compared between different centres |
The different types of inflammatory cells and their mediators can be recognised in BAL material, and may be used for immunoscoring |
Cancer cells may be identified in BAL fluid in the case of peripheral tumours |
The results of many studies confirm the significance of that method |