[Alveolar adenoma -- a rare lung tumour]

Alveolar adenoma belongs to the group of benign epithelial tumours. Histogenesis of alveolar adenoma is a combination of proliferation of alveolar pneumocytes and fibrous tissue originating from septal mesenchyma.

A sixty-nine-year old female patient was hospitalizied for clinical examination and surgery of well defined and homogenous tumourous lesion in the right middle lobe causing pleural pain. Bronchoscopic examination with biopsy did not resolve aetiology of the disease. Tumourectomy was performed. Tumourous nodule had a multicystic appearance and histologically, histochemically and immunohistochemically, an alveolar adenoma was estimated. Five years after surgery, the patient feels well, without respiratory symptoms and signs of recurrence or malignant alteration, respectively.

Alveolar adenoma is a rare benign lung tumour, most frequently presented as a solitary pulmonary nodule. After complete surgery, the tumour neither relapses nor malignantly alters. Surgical excision is curative. It is necessary to take into consideration alveolar adenoma, too, when a solitary pulmonary nodule is diagnosed.