Lung cancer is generally diagnosed through traditional bronchoscopy by pulmonologists, whereas data on the application of transesophageal endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for lung cancer diagnosis in China are very rarely reported. We herein describe a case of a 62-year-old woman who presented with non-productive cough and was found to have a pulmonary mass in the upper lobe of the right lung. The results of positron emission tomography revealed an elevated level of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose accumulation (maximum standardized uptake value of 13.6) in the left adrenal gland. Thus, EUS-FNA was performed to identify the suspected metastasis to the left adrenal gland, and the histopathological examination of the bioptic specimen demonstrated an adenocarcinoma, confirming the value of EUS-FNA as a first-line minimally invasive approach for diagnosis and staging in patients with lung cancer.
Keywords: left adrenal gland; lung cancer; metastasis; ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration.