Amyloidosis and lung cancer. A morphological and histochemical study

A study performed on a sample of 120 subjects who died of lung carcinoma and were examined at autopsy in order to verify the presence of amyloid substance particularly localized in the tumoral tissue, is reported. In the positive cases (4 oat cell carcinomas and 1 squamous cell carcinoma), the histochemical nature of depositions was investigated to assess their belonging to the primitive or secondary type, and to the APUD or immune type. The doubtful results induced the authors to suppose an analogous behaviour of oat cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The explanation of this phenomenon is still unclear and it should be looked for starting from two hypotheses: an analogy between oat cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma both belonging to the APUD system, or simply a non-specific phenomenon (intratumoral amyloid deposition).