WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Shape-sensing robotic-assisted bronchoscopy (ssRAB) demonstrates a high diagnostic performance for pulmonary lesions, with high sensitivity for malignancy, according to a study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Sebastian Fernandez-Bussy, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and colleagues conducted a multicenter study on consecutive patients who underwent ssRAB for evaluation of suspicious peripheral pulmonary lesions across three academic centers from July 2019 to August 2024. Overall, 2,115 peripheral pulmonary lesions were biopsied from 1,904 patients using ssRAB.
The researchers found that strict diagnostic yield (DY) was 76.9 percent and intermediate DY was 80.2 percent. The sensitivity for malignancy was 85.0 percent; in 74 percent of patients, staging with endobronchial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration was performed concurrently. Significant predictors of DY included the 1.1-mm cryoprobe, solid density on computed tomography, maximum diameter, and body mass index (odds ratios, 1.88, 1.42, 1.77, and 0.95, respectively). Adverse events requiring intervention occurred at a rate of 2.8 percent. There was an increase in early lung cancer detection from 46 to 69 percent from 2019 to 2024, while a decrease was seen in local/advanced diagnosis from 54 to 31 percent.
"This technology really has been a game-changer for diagnosing lung cancer earlier," Fernandez-Bussy said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to industry.