Abstract              Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The overall 5 year survival rate of lung cancer is 15% in developed countries and 5% in developing countries An early, accurate diagnosis is of paramount importance for initiating specific therapy. Aim and objective: To study the various diagnostic methods for early detection of lung cancer Methodology: The study was carried out in 58 indoor patients during the period of January 2000 to March 2002 at tertiary care center. All patient underwent routine investigations and sputum, USG. Selected cases were investigated by Fibre Optic Bronchoscopy, Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), pleural fluid, pleural biopsy, Percutaneous lymphnode FNAC, Lymphnode biopsy Results: Sputum was positive in 4 (6.89%). cases only. Radio graphically right lung (62.06%) was more often affected than the left (37.93%) with the preponderance of upper lobes. Bronchoscopic aspirate was positive in 61.53% and bronchoscopic biopsy was positive in 76.92%, combined yield by both procedure was 69.22%. Fine needle aspiration cytology was positive in 91.66% of cases, where FNAC was done. Pleural fluid cytology was positive in 62.96% where as pleural biopsy was positive in 37.03%. Conclusion: Chest radiography has found to be have high sensitivity, low cost and negligible risk and hence it should be the starting point in detection of lung carcinoma. Sputum has low sensitivity in diagnosis of lung cancer. Pleural fluid aspiration has higher diagnostic yield.

Key Words: lung cancer.