1991 Volume 13 Issue 5 Pages 465-471
In the past five years, we retrospectively studied 33 patients with metastases to the lung from tumors in distant sites who underwent flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Bronchoscopic examination revealed bronchial involvement in 12 patients (36.4%). Their primary sites included the breast (four cases), rectum (two cases), uterus (two cases), colon, stomach, kidney, and thyroid. The patients were considered to be divided into two groups by bronchoscopic findings as follows : (I) polypoid protrusions (five patients) ; and (II) diffuse intramural invasion (seven patients). Polypoid type endobronchial metastasis were observed in patients with renal cancer, thyroid cancer, rectal cancer (1/2 cases), uterine cancer (1/2 cases), and breast cancer (1/4 cases), while diffuse type were observed in patients with breast cancer (3/4 cases), gastric cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer (1/2 cases), and uterine cancer (1/2 cases). Several metastatic routes of malignant tumors to the bronchi have been suggested. In our study, metastasis to the bronchial wall by the bronchial arteries in polypoid type cases, and a route through the peribronchial lymphatics in diffuse type cases were suggested by pathological findings.
