[Clinical x-ray characteristics of oat cell lung cancer]

The analysis of the case reports of 116 patients with oat-cell cancer of the lung, treated at the N. N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology of the USSR Ministry of Health from 1952 to 1971, has revealed some features of the clinico-roentgenological picture of the disease: a short-term anamnesis, prompt development of the symptoms with predominant pains in the involved thoraic portion and retorsternally, a prevailing peribronchial growth (76.6%), early and extensive metastasization revealed in 84.5% of cases. The detection, on roentgenograms and tomograms of the chest organs, of the block of enlarged lymph nodes in the lung hilus and mediastinum in the presence of a small tumor in the lung allowed oat-cell cancer to be suspected. The roentgenological picture of median oat-cell cancer is characterized by the presence of tumor conglomerate in the lung hilus, which consisted of the primary tumor penetrating in lymph nodes adjacent to the bronchus in 66.6% of canses.