Objective To explore the pathological diagnostic value of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in lung cancer. Methods This study selected patients who underwent general anesthesia and electronic bronchoscope biopsy at the Respiratory Endoscopy Center of Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital from January 1, 2023, to December 1, 2023. White-light bronchoscopy (WLB), auto-fluorescence bronchoscopy (AFB), and OCT examinations were performed in all patients. Lesions were assessed for benign or malignant characteristics based on AFB and OCT before biopsy. The final pathological results were determined according to pathology report. Results A total of 124 patients were included in the study. The accuracy of OCT in differentiating the nature of lesions was 93.55%, significantly higher than AFB (accuracy 83.06%). The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of OCT were all higher than AFB. For squamous carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and small cell lung cancer, the accuracy rates of OCT imaging characteristics were 91.94%, 94.35%, and 94.35%, respectively. Conclusion OCT can improve the accuracy of pre-bronchoscopic tissue pathology biopsy in determining the nature of lesions and provide rapid pathological typing basis, potentially further promoting the development of non-invasive histological biopsy.