[Coin lesion in the lung of patients with known malignancy]

Histological examination was performed on 93 pulmonary nodules resected in 90 patients with known malignancy. The diameters of the coin lesions on CT scan were 3-10 mm in 42 cases and 11-30 mm in 51 cases. The most common sources of the previous malignancy were: large bowel (20), breast (14), uterus (12), kidney (11) and larynx (7). In 84 cases the nodules were radically resected through "wedge" resection and in 9 cases lobectomy was performed. Most frequently, coin lesion was caused by metastases of known malignancy (in 69.9%), pulmonary fibrosis (in 11.8%) and by primary lung cancer (in 7.5%). In general, pulmonary nodules were found malignant in 78.5% and benign in 21.5% of the cases. In the subgroup of coin lesions of diameter between 11 and 30 mm malignancy was noted in 94.1%--significantly more frequently than in subgroup of diameter between 3 and 10 mm (59.5%). No significant correlation was found between histological type of pulmonary nodules (malignant or benign) and the type of primary malignancy as well as the time from the treatment of primary malignancy to the detection of the coin lesion.