Results of surgical treatment in bronchioloalveolar carcinoma

The study relates to patients with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma who had undergone operation. On reassessment of histological specimens, 92 patients were considered to have been suffering from bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma was further classified according to histological findings as typical or of mixed type. The latter included cases on which there was differentiation towards pulmonary adenocarcinoma. A third group consisted of 32 cases of peripheral pulmonary adenocarcinoma originally diagnosed as bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. Pulmonary tuberculosis was found to have occurred oftener in bronchioloalveolar carcinoma cases than in mixed bronchioloalveolar cases (p less than 0.005). A history of pneumonia was commoner in mixed bronchioloalveolar and adenocarcinoma patients than in bronchioloalveolar patients (p less than 0.05). Lobectomy or more conservative resection had been possible in the majority of cases. There had been no surgical or hospital mortality. No differences existed between the groups as regards surgical treatment, postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Local recurrence was commoner in bronchioloalveolar patients than in mixed bronchioloalveolar patients (p less than 0.001) or adenocarcinoma patients (p less than 0.025). Mixed bronchioloalveolar and adenocarcinoma patients had distant metastases oftener than bronchioloalveolar patients (p less than 0.025 and p less than 0.001). Adenocarcinoma patients also had more metastases than mixed bronchioloalveolar patients, but the difference was not statistically significant. Most metastases (82%) were discovered within three years of operation. The incidence of local recurrences increased from three years after operation. The five-year survival rate was 57% in the bronchioloalveolar group, 45% in the mixed bronchioloalveolar group and 17% in the adenocarcinoma group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)