Allelotype of non-small cell lung carcinoma--comparison between loss of heterozygosity in squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.

We examined loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on all autosomal chromosomes in 53 non-small cell lung carcinomas. Frequent LOH was observed on the long arms of chromosomes 1 (37%), 2 (31%), 5 (30%), 8 (31%), and 13 (32%), and the short arms of chromosomes 3 (54%) and 17 (62%). LOH on chromosomes 3p and 17p was observed in all informative cases of squamous cell carcinoma, but was significantly less frequent in adenocarcinomas (P = 0.003 and 0.001, respectively). Similarly, LOH on chromosome 13q was observed frequently in squamous cell carcinomas (5 of 9 informative cases, or 56%), but in only 5 of 26, or 19%, of adenocarcinomas. In contrast, LOH on chromosome 2q was observed only in adenocarcinomas. In addition, this chromosomal arm was lost more frequently in poorly differentiated, compared to well differentiated adenocarcinomas. Furthermore, a correlation between fractional allelic loss and pathohistological grade was identified. These results implicate the presence of several tumor suppressor genes associated with development and/or progression of non-small cell lung carcinomas.

Surgical treatment of pulmonary metastases from uterine cervical cancer. Operation method by lung tumor size.

Between 1959 and 1986, 32 patients with pulmonary metastatic tumors from squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix underwent pulmonary resection. The method of pulmonary resection was correlated with the pathology of the metastases. In 20 patients with pulmonary metastatic lesions 3 cm in diameter or larger, secondary lymph node involvement was observed in 65% and microscopic satellite lesions around the main metastatic lesion were seen in 50%. On the other hand, in none of 12 patients having metastatic lesions smaller than 3 cm was there accompanying lymph node involvement, and microscopic satellite lesions were observed in only one patient among them. Consequently, we concluded that wedge resection with a disease-free margin of 2 cm or a little more from the tumor edge was appropriate for lesions smaller than 3 cm in diameter, and lobectomy with lymph node dissection was necessary for lesions 3 cm in diameter or more.

Incidence of atypical bronchioloalveolar cell hyperplasia of the lung: relation to histological subtypes of lung cancer.

The incidence of atypical bronchioloalveolar cell hyperplasia (ABH) of the lung was investigated to evaluate the possibility of this lesion being a precancerous stage in the histogenesis of adneocarcinoma. Lobectomy and pneumonectomy specimens of 165 primary and 45 metastatic tumour cases were step-sectioned horizontally and examined histologically. An average of 51 blocks were taken in each case. Sixty-seven ABHs up to 10 mm in diameter were detected, only 2 lesions being associated with scar tissue. Age was one factor apparently related to ABH development, although not the major one. There was no correlation between smoking index and ABH occurrence. In males, the incidence was highest in association with adenocarcinoma (25.5% of cases, 0.8% of sections), followed by large cell carcinoma (25.0% of cases), squamous cell carcinoma (10.5% of cases) and metastatic tumours from other sites (4.8% of cases). In females, ABH was also more common together with adenocarcinoma (8.3% of cases) than with metastatic tumours (4.0% of cases). The differences in male incidences by case and by section between the adenocarcinoma and metastatic tumour categories were statistically significant (P less than 0.05, P less than 0.01 respectively) indicating that ABH may be a precancerous lesion capable of transformation of adenocarcinoma.

Risk of lung cancer among cigarette smokers in relation to tumor location.

To evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on lung cancer by tumor location and histological type, we compared the smoking history obtained from medical records of 605 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (194 males and 10 females) or adenocarcinoma (219 males and 182 females) of the lung and 183 patients with metastatic lung cancer (82 males and 101 females) who had been aged 40 years or over at the time of surgical resection at the Cancer Institute in Tokyo from 1973-1991. The tumors which developed in a main or segmental bronchus were classified as central type, and those in a subsegmental or more distal bronchi were categorized as peripheral type. Cases with adenocarcinoma were classified by a pathologist into two histological subtypes, papillary and tubular types, according to the WHO lung carcinoma classification. Risk of squamous cell carcinoma was strongly associated with cigarette smoking for both central (OR (odds ratio) = 10.3 in males and 4.4 in females) and peripheral sites (OR = 10.7 in males and 6.5 in females). There was no significant association between cigarette smoking and adenocarcinoma for any tumor site or histological subtype in both sexes.

Pulmonary sclerosing hemangioma of the lung. A type II pneumocytoma by immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic studies.

Three cases of pulmonary sclerosing hemangioma were studied by immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic methods using a panel of antibodies. Six cases of adenocarcinoma of the lung, three cases of normal mesothelium, and three cases of mesothelioma were used as controls. The cytoplasm of some of the sclerosing hemangioma tumor cells was positive for the anti-lung surfactant apoprotein monoclonal antibody (PE-10). These cells were the pale cells of the solid areas, the cells covering the papillary projections, and the cells lining the cleft-like spaces. These cells also were positive for conventional epithelial cell markers. Some cells also were positive for vimentin. Electron microscopic study showed that the predominant cell was a poorly differentiated pneumocyte. Immunoelectron microscopic study also demonstrated that PE-10 existed in the rough endoplasmic reticulum of some of the cells in the solid areas, in the same way as normal type II pneumocytes. We concluded that the sclerosing hemangioma is an epithelial tumor with differentiation towards type II pneumocytes.