Abstract
A retrospective review was performed of the clinicopathological features of 20 patients with adenosquamous cell carcinoma (ASC) of the lungs who were treated surgically between 2005 and 2013. They were compared with those of 710 patients with adenocarcinoma (AC) and 174 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SC) who were treated during the same period. The ASC group had a higher Brinkman index, a higher median maximum standardized uptake value on fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, and higher concentrations of carcinoembryonic antigen and cytokeratin 19 fragments compared with the AC group. In addition, pathological stage IA ASC was less common than pathological stage IA AC, and stage IIB ASC was more common than stage IIB AC and stage IIB SC. The recurrence rate of ASC was higher than that of AC and SC. This could be because the ASC group had higher rates of vascular invasion and lymph node metastasis than the other groups based on logistic regression multivariate analysis of the risk factors. Distant metastases or local recurrences developed in 10 patients in the ASC group. Such metastases were more frequent in patients who were heavy smokers, had higher carcinoembryonic antigen concentrations, and had higher vascular invasion scores.
