Relationship between cytologic characteristics and the prognosis in small cell carcinoma of the lung

Abstract

The relationship between cytological characteristics, morphological findings and DNA level, and clinical effect of chemotherapy and the prognosis was studied in 20 cases of small cell carcinoma of the lung.
The tumor cells were obtained by brushing under fiberbronchoscopy and the nuclear DNA level was measured microphotometrically.
It might be important to predict the degree of response to chemotherapy prior to the treatment because the prognosis of responder to chemotherapy was better than that of non-responder.
The cytologic characteristics of responder to chemotherapy showed slightly large nuclei and finely granular chromatin. That of non-responder were slightly small nuclei and coarsely granular chromatin.
The average value of nuclear DNA in tumor cell obtained from responder was higher than that of non-responder.
The cytologic findings of small cell carcinoma may be related to response to chemotherapy and the prognosis.