Ground glass opacity featured lung adenocarcinoma in teenagers

Ground glass opacity (GGO) nodules were found incidentally by computed tomography (CT) scan in some teenagers, which turned out to be lung cancer. The purpose of this study is to summarize the characteristics of teenage patients with GGO featured lung adenocarcinoma.

Patients aging from 13 to 20 who were incidentally diagnosed with lung cancer were reviewed between February 2015 to December 2020. The clinical, radiological and pathological characteristics were analyzed.

Totally 12 patients were included. All of them were diagnosed as GGO featured lung cancer through CT scan, with no presenting symptom. The median surveillance before surgery was 5.5 months, and none of these GGO lesions enlarged or altered in the property during the surveillance. The mean tumor diameter was 0.93 ± 0.25 cm. Ten patients underwent wedge resection by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), 9 of which were minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) and 1 of which were invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) in the pathological analysis. One patient underwent VATS left-upper sublobectomy, pathologically diagnosed as MIA and 1 patient underwent VATS left-upper lobectomy with systematic mediastinal lymphadenectomy, pathologically diagnosed as IAC. The median postoperative hospital stay was 3 days. All patients survived without recurrence during a median follow-up of 12.5 months.

GGO nodules could be a sign of early-stage teenage lung adenocarcinoma. We proposed a screening strategy with long intervals based on a baseline CT scan for the teenage population, and a treatment strategy for diagnosed teenage patients.