[Endobronchial metastases of cancer. Apropos of 29 cases]

In a retrospective study covering a 3-year period, 29 cases were reviewed. All concerned patients with endoscopic abnormalities resembling those of a primary carcinoma and histologically of the same type as a previously known tumour affecting areas as diverse as the E.N.T. region (31%), the colorectal region (20.6%), the mammary gland (13.7%) or the bladder (10.3%). There was nothing particular in the clinical, radiological or endoscopic signs. In the vast majority of cases (27/29) the histological diagnosis was provided by bronchofibroscopy. Thus, not only does endoscopy frequently visualizes abnormalities in obviously secondary carcinomas, but it also diagnoses cancers with clinical, radiological and endoscopic features of primary cancers from which they are sometimes almost undistinguishable.