Fig. 3

Representative case with a centrally located occupying lesion. A 31-year-old woman with an enhanced chest CT showing a mass shadow in the left lower lobe and a peripheral atelectatic lung formation (A). Bronchoscopic luminal finding shows that the lumen of the left lower lobe B9 + 10 is extramurally compressed (B). Radial endobronchial ultrasonography (EBUS) probe inserted into the lumen shows an image when the probe is inserted into the tumor (within) (C). ROSE finding on TBB forceps smears shows tumor cells with enlarged nuclear dysmorphism (yellow arrow head) and ciliated tracheal epithelial cells (yellow arrow) (D). Histopathological analysis of specimen obtained by TBB reveal that tracheal cartilage (yellow arrow) and airway epithelium were mostly present, with only a few clusters of tumor cells (yellow circles)