Safer Lung Biopsies, Fewer Chemo Side Effects: Two Breakthroughs in Cancer Care
Every year, new studies reshape how doctors diagnose and treat cancer. Some of these breakthroughs are highly technical, while others are surprisingly simple but deeply impactful. Today we highlight two new studies—one in lung cancer and one in chemotherapy side effect prevention—that may change care for many patients.
Safer Diagnosis of Lung Nodules: The VERITAS Trial
For many patients, a lung nodule on a CT scan raises the question: is this cancer? The answer depends on safely and accurately obtaining a biopsy. Until recently, doctors often relied on transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) for diagnosing many lung nodules, a procedure performed through the chest wall with a needle. While effective, TTNB carries a significant risk of pneumothorax (collapsed lung), often requiring hospitalization.
The VERITAS trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2025, compared TTNB with newer navigational bronchoscopy techniques. This newer approach uses advanced navigation systems (including magnetic and robotic guidance) to reach even very small nodules in the farthest parts of the lung by using light sedation and passing a tube through the mouth down to the airway and branches of the lung.
- Accuracy: Both methods performed equally well in diagnosing cancer. Bronchoscopy was even slightly better (73–79% accuracy), though not statistically significant.
- Safety: This is where the difference was striking. Pneumothorax occurred in only 3% of bronchoscopy patients compared with 28% of TTNB patients—a 25% absolute difference. Hospitalizations were almost ten times lower with bronchoscopy (<1% vs. ~10%).
What this means for patients: If you are told you need a biopsy of a small, peripheral lung nodule, bronchoscopy may now be the safer first option in many cases. With ongoing improvements in technology, bronchoscopy is becoming the preferred pathway to diagnosis, combining accuracy with dramatically lower complication rates.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
- Am I a candidate for navigational bronchoscopy instead of a needle biopsy?
- What are the risks of a pneumothorax in my specific case?
- Is bronchoscopy available at this hospital, or would I need referral to a specialized center?
- How quickly will I get results from each approach?
Preventing Nerve Damage from Chemotherapy: The POLAR Trial
Chemotherapy is lifesaving, but it can cause lasting side effects. One of the most troubling is chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), often from taxane drugs commonly used in breast, lung, and other cancers. Neuropathy causes numbness, tingling, pain, and sometimes permanent difficulty with balance or hand function.
The POLAR trial, published in JAMA Oncology in 2025, tested whether simple interventions—hand cooling and compression—could reduce neuropathy during chemotherapy.
- How it worked: Patients cooled or compressed their dominant hand before, during, and after infusion (about 30 minutes each). Cooling and compression work by slowing down blood flow to the nerves in the hands during chemotherapy, which means less of the drug reaches the nerves. This helps protect them from damage, lowering the chance of numbness, tingling, or pain after treatment. The study compared the hand that was cooled or compressed during chemotherapy to the other hand that wasn’t, and looked to see if there was less nerve damage in the protected hand.
- Results: Cooling cut the risk of moderate-to-severe neuropathy from 50% to 29%. Compression reduced it from 38% to 24%. That means about 1 in 5 patients were spared neuropathy using these techniques.
This is similar to how scalp cooling is now used to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy. Simple, low-cost interventions like this can make a big difference in how patients feel during and after treatment.
What this means for patients: If you are starting taxane-based chemotherapy, talk to your oncologist about whether hand cooling or compression could be an option. Preventing neuropathy upfront may help you finish your treatment on time and avoid long-term side effects.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
- Can cooling gloves or compression sleeves be used during my chemotherapy?
- Are these techniques available at this infusion center?
- If not, are there safe at-home or clinic-based options I could try?
- What are the risks or downsides of cooling or compression therapy?
Final Thoughts
Both of these studies—one in lung cancer diagnosis and one in chemotherapy support—highlight a larger trend in oncology: making care not only effective, but also safer and kinder.
- For lung nodules, navigational bronchoscopy is reducing the risks of biopsy without sacrificing accuracy.
- For chemotherapy, cooling and compression may protect patients from a lifelong side effect.
An ounce of prevention, as the saying goes, is worth five pounds of cure—and these advances show just how true that is in cancer care today.
References
- Rivera MP, et al. VERITAS Trial: Navigational Bronchoscopy vs. Transthoracic Needle Biopsy for Peripheral Lung Nodules. New England Journal of Medicine. June 2025.
- Anders CK, et al. POLAR Trial: Cooling and Compression to Prevent Taxane-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy. JAMA Oncology. 2025.
- Nangia J, et al. SCALP Trial: Scalp Cooling to Prevent Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia. JAMA. 2017;317(6):596–605.