[The cytologic diagnosis of rare lung tumors (author's transl)]

The cytologic diagnosis of typical cell pattern originating in rare lung tumours gets a supplementary value for an accurate diagnostic prediction in addition to histologic examinations. Comparison was made by use of light and electron microscopy between three bronchogenic carcinoid tumours, two melanomas metastasizing to the lung, and one plasmacytoma in the lung. The cytologic diagnosis from dab smears and the electron microscopy are able to give an accurate diagnostic decision examinating some single difficult cases by - demarcating the cells of carcinoid tumours from the oat cells originating in undifferentiated small cell anaplastic carcinomas - differentiating plasma cells using May-Grünwald-Giemsa stained smears - detecting melanin by using electron microscopy in the nonpigmented melanomas metastasizing to the lung.