Therefore, patients who undergo bronchoscopy to investigate whether or not they have lung cancer have a different prognosis than those undergoing bronchoscopy to determine the cause of pneumonia. In elderly patients, pneumonia can be very serious and even fatal, while almost all healthy young individuals will recover without complications. Antibiotics can greatly reduce the severity and the duration of the pneumonia, especially if treatment is begun early. With some types of pneumonia, permanent damage may be done to the lungs. More often, however, patients recover without significant lung damage and their lungs will function just as well after the pneumonia as they did before.
Patients undergoing bronchoscopy to biopsy a growth in their lungs have varied prognoses.
If the growth in the lung is cancer, the prognosis is generally very poor. With bronchoscopy, the physician can determine if the tumor is resectable by removing a lobe of the lung. Unfortunately, this is the only realistic chance of a cure, and most lung cancers are not resectable. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments can often prolong survival, but they are not a cure. Bronchoscopy itself does not cause any damage to the lungs, and therefore should only improve a patient's prognosis because it helps the physician plan the best management strategy.