[Comparative histological and cytological characteristics of peripheral lung cancer]

Peripheral pulmonary carcinoma was analysed retrospectively histologically, histochemically, and cytologically. The examination material (smears taken at percutaneous thoracic aspirational biopsy, resected lung or lung lobe) had been obtained from 113 patients with PPC among whom 85 patients underwent pulmon- or lobe-ectomy. Cytological examination of specimens from percutaneous thoracic biopsy allowed the diagnosis of PPC to be established in 90.6% of cases and to determine correctly the histological type of cancer in 85.7%. No regular correlation between the levels of tissue and cellular differentiation in squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma was found. Argyrophilic granules (Grimelius reaction) were detected in cells of combined oat cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma of transitional type. Because of the existence of combined tumors in the lungs consisting of cells of different types of differentiation it is suggested that complex histological types of pulmonary carcinoma can develop from a common polypotent precursor cell.