2001 Volume 41 Issue 6 Pages 681-685
Background: Most lung adenocarcinomas show poor prognosis. However, some cases of slowly progressive adenocarcinoma have been reported.
Case: A case of a 43-year old man with lung adenocarcinoma was reported. An abnormal shadow was pointed out in the left middle lung field on the chest X-ray film in 1994, but he did not undergo further examination. When he was admitted to a hospital complaining of cough and bloody sputum in 1999, the chest X-ray film revealed a mass in the left middle lung field and multiple nodular densities in bilateral lung fields. The diagnosis of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lung was made by a transbronchial lung biopsy of the left S6. He visited our hospital for further examination. We performed transbronchial lung biopsy of the right S2b, S3a, S4a and S8a. The histological findings showed that tumor cells proliferated with a cribriform pattern and some tumor cells were surrounded with much mucinous material. Immunohistochemically, the findings suggested that myoepithelial cells were not present, and the basal membrane did not exist in the duct like structure. Thus, we diagnosed this case as a mucous-producing lung adenocarcinoma, not as adenoid cystic carcinoma. Although chemothrapy was not effective, his performance status is still good in July, 2001.
Concusion: Some cases of mucus-producing lung adenocarcinomas grow very slowly.
