https://radiologykey.com/essential-equipment-puncture-needles/

In today's era when lung cancer diagnosis and treatment have entered the "precision medicine" stage, the formulation of treatment plans no longer solely relies on the qualitative diagnosis of "whether it is cancer" but increasingly depends on the molecular pathological diagnosis of "what type of cancer it is" and "what genetic mutations it has." Against this backdrop, the percutaneous lung biopsy procedure and its core tool - the biopsy needle - play an irreplaceable role as "frontline scouts," serving as a key bridge connecting clinical imaging and molecular pathology.

In the traditional treatment model, for isolated pulmonary nodules or masses that are suspected to be lung cancer, surgical resection is often the preferred diagnostic and therapeutic approach. However, for patients who are not eligible for surgery, or who need to clarify the pathology first for neoadjuvant therapy (preoperative treatment), as well as for patients with suspected metastatic tumors who need to determine the source of the primary lesion, needle biopsy is the only minimally invasive way to obtain a histological diagnosis. More importantly, with the rapid development of targeted drugs and immunotherapy, the clinical requirements for biopsy specimens have risen from "sufficient for diagnosis" to "sufficient for a series of molecular tests."

This places higher demands on the puncture needle technology and operation strategies. Firstly, it involves the "quantity" and "quality" of the sample. To meet the subsequent needs for immunohistochemistry and gene sequencing (such as detection of EGFR, ALK, ROS1, PD-L1 expression, etc.), it is necessary to obtain sufficient and well-preserved tumor tissue. Modern puncture needles, especially those with side grooves (such as Tru-Cut needles) and those with negative pressure suction function, can obtain strip-like tissue cores in a single puncture, and their quality is far superior to that of traditional fine needle cytological smears, providing a material basis for multi-gene testing.

Secondly, there is the "representativeness" of the sample selection. Tumors are heterogeneous, meaning that the genetic characteristics of different regions within the same tumor may vary. To obtain more representative samples and avoid false-negative results due to sampling errors, doctors, under the guidance of imaging, will strategically choose the solid components of the tumor, avoiding necrotic areas, and sometimes even need to take multiple samples from different parts of the same lesion. This "precision targeting" sampling method is entirely dependent on the controllability of the biopsy needle under real-time imaging monitoring.

Furthermore, during the treatment process, the puncture needle also undertakes the tasks of "efficacy assessment" and "drug resistance monitoring." After a period of targeted therapy, drug resistance may occur. At this point, by performing another puncture biopsy to obtain new tumor tissues and analyzing the changes in their genetic variation profiles (such as the EGFR T790M mutation), it becomes the gold standard for guiding subsequent treatments (such as switching to third-generation targeted drugs). This dynamic, biopsy-based genetic monitoring is the core环节 for achieving "comprehensive management" and "individualized treatment" of lung cancer.

Therefore, modern lung biopsy needles are no longer merely a simple sampling tool. They are a highly precise medical device under the concept of precision medicine, integrating imaging positioning, minimally invasive surgical operations, and molecular pathological requirements. Every successful application of this device directly affects whether a lung cancer patient can receive the most suitable targeted drug or immunotherapy regimen, truly achieving the leap from "one treatment for a thousand people" to "one treatment for one person" in the diagnosis and treatment model.