Biomarkers in Patients With Respiratory Tract Dysplasia or Lung Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer, or Aerodigestive Tract Cancer and in Normal Volunteers

Prior treatment

• Hypoxemia (less than 90% saturation with supplemental oxygen) prior to bronchoscopy.

Other illness

• Patients are not eligible if any one of the following conditions exist:
• Clinically apparent bleeding diathesis.
• Cardiac dysrhythmia that is potentially life threatening, such as ventricular tachycardia, multifocal premature ventricular contractions or supraventricular tachycardias with a rapid ventricular response. Well-controlled atrial fibrillation or rare (\< 2/minute) premature ventricular contractions are not exclusionary.
• Evidence of clinically active coronary artery disease, including myocardial infarction within 6 weeks, anginal chest pain, or poorly controlled congestive heart failure, or any other serious medical condition which would preclude a patient from undergoing a bronchoscopy.
• Acute bronchitis or pneumonia within 8 weeks, except if these are considered clinically to be possibly a result of lung cancer.

Other

• Inability to give informed consent

• Two broad patient groups are of interest: those with extensive and severe dysplasia of the respiratory epithelium and those without dysplasia of the respiratory epithelium. The patients with dysplasia will be recruited from the following:
• Individuals identified through the SPORE Tissue Procurement Screening Project with moderate or severe dysplasia.
• Patients identified by private and academic physicians with moderate or severe dysplasia on cytology.
• One year or greater survivors of one or more aerodigestive system carcinomas.
• Patients with head and neck cancers who are undergoing routine panendoscopy.
• Patients undergoing resection of a bronchogenic carcinoma.
• Fully resected Stage I non-small cell cancer patients.
• Patient's undergoing bronchoscopy for diagnosis or staging of suspected lung cancer.
• Subjects with previous high-grade dysplasia or worse undergoing subsequent bronchoscopy for surveillance or monitoring of response to endobronchial treatment.
• Patients suspected of or at risk for neoplastic lung disease who are undergoing a bronchoscopy in which differential diagnostic considerations may include multiple other etiologies such as infection and other processes.
• Patients without dysplasia will be: patients undergoing clinically indicated bronchoscopy for conditions other than suspected lung cancer.