[Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of 52 patients]

To present the treatment and prognosis of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC).

A retrospective study was conducted on 52 bronchioloalveolar carcinoma patients admitted from April 1990 to April 2000 with emphasis on clinical manifestations, treatment and survival. All lesions were pathologically proved as either localized or diffused type.

These 52 cases comprised 2.5% lung tumors treated in the same period. Its clinical symptoms were similar to those of the other lung cancers. Short of breath and positive physical chest findings were more common in the diffused type. Forty-seven of these 52 patients underwent surgery and 5, chemotherapy. Follow-up showed that 28 (53.8%) patients have died; 10 (19.2%) of recurrence and 18 (34.6%) of metastasis with a median survival of 24.3 months for the localized type and 5.3 months for the diffused type (P < 0.05), The median survival of stage II BAC was 26.8 months in contrast of 42.5 months of stage II non-BAC adenocarcinoma group(P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the overall survival rates of BAC and non-BAC squamous carcinoma (P > 0.05). Even though, trend analysis still showed that there is a tendency of decline in the survival rates from squamous cancer, non-BAC and BAC though (P < 0.05).

Localized BAC gives a better prognosis than diffused BAC of which the biological characteristics are different from those of the non-BAC. Compared with the non-BAC, a more active postoperative treatment should be considered for the BAC patients, such as postoperative chemotherapy and or radiotherapy, especially for stage II BAC lesions.