[Advances in pathobiological research on lung carcinoma]

Histological examination revealed that many peripheral type papillary adenocarcinomas appear to develop from atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH), which can be called adenoma or in situ adenocarcinoma, and progress stepwise. Molecular-biologically, loss of heterozygosities of 3, 11 and 17 chromosomes, point mutation of ras oncogene and p53 anti-oncogene, amplification of myc oncogene, and overexpression of erbB2 oncogene are related to lung cancer development. Especially, ras and p53 gene abnormalities are closely associated with poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma. Future molecular-biological examinations should focus on AAH and/or early stage adenocarcinoma of the lung, in order to clarify the gene abnormality at the early stage of lung carcinogenesis.