The role of bronchoalveolar lavage in providing access to the evaluation of immune mechanisms taking place in lung cancer.

The introduction of bronchoalveolar lavage into clinical practice has greatly improved our knowledge of the pathogenesis of interstitial lung disorders. By recovering cells from the lower respiratory tract, bronchoalveolar lavage allows the study of the infiltration of immunoinflammatory and immunocompetent cells in the lung interstitium. Major new advances in biomedical medicine, especially in immunology and molecular biology, are gradually being applied to the evaluation of bronchoalveolar lavage, thus further extending the efficacy of this procedure. In the present study we have summarized major reasons giving a rationale for using this methodology in cancer patients, notably the possibility of generating new insights into the comprehension of immunological mechanisms taking place in lung cancer and the possibility to increase the diagnostic chances in different neoplastic conditions.