[Combined lung cancer and systemic scleroderma]

The article presents data of the literature and the author's personal two observations on combination of systemic scleroderma and cancer of the lungs. According to the data obtained, the most frequent forms of neoplasms in this combination were tumours of an adenomatous structure. A decisive role in the machanism of development of adenomatosis of the lungs was played by septo-alveolar sclerosis which led to rearrangement of the lung tissue. Potential malignancy of adenomatosis of the lungs in systemic sclerodermia was closely connected with participation of a "defective" collagen of the embryonic type in the formation of the basal membrane of the alveolar epithelium, as well as with the predominance among the tumour cells of granular pneumocytes of the B type characteristic of the embryonal period of mammals.