[Clinical features of resected patients with lung cancers revealed by computed tomography]

Seven cases of peripheral lung cancers revealed only by computed tomography (CT) were examined in order to study the clinical features and the roentgeno-pathological correlation. There were four male and three female cases with a median age of 68 (range 32-79) years. Conventional X-ray films were negative, but the primary tumors were found by CT. The reasons why the primary tumors were overlooked on conventional X-ray films were that two cases had lesions situated in the para-mediastinal area and five cases had vague lesions. CT findings were classified into two groups; infiltrative type with obscure margin and solid type with clear margin. Histologically, the former were revealed to be well differentiated adenocarcinoma and the latter included poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma. Pathological evaluation showed stage I in six of the seven cases. Our study cannot prove whether CT screening will prevent any number of participants from deaths due to lung cancer. However, it is suggested that CT may be superior for early detection of lung cancer as opposed to conventional X-ray. In the future, a more applicable CT system will be required for early detection of lung cancer.