Relationship between Histologic Features and Prognosis of Patients with Adenocarcinoma of the Lung

Abstract

Seventy cases of adenocarcinoma of the lung were classified into sixhistologic categories considering the cytologic subtypes of the tumors, to examine the correlation between the subtypes and prognosis of patients. There were 7 bronchial surface cell type (10.0%), 6 goblet cell type (8.6%), 14 gland cell type (20.0%), 38 nonciliated cell type (54.3%), 5 mixed cell type (7.1%), and none type II alveolar cell type (0%).
The 5-year survival was 100% in goblet cell type, 100% in surface cell, 40.0% in mixed cell, 24.9% in nonciliated cell, and 17.9% in gland cell, respectively.
The prognosis of patients with either goblet or surface cell type tumor who had less lymph node metastasis, seems to be good, while the prognosis of those with gland cell type tumor with limited lymph node metastasis was worse. It is considered that nonciliated cell type tumors already have micrometastasis at the time of surgery.
Cytologic subtypes might be useful to estimate the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients.