[Lymphoepithelioma-like lung carcinomas]

Having observed 2 cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung in a 49-year-old female and in a 66-year-old male patient, we present a review on this entity, which was described for the first time in 1987. Essentially this neoplasm has the same histological appearance as a Schmincke-Regaud tumor, but it is possible that a certain morphological variety exists. In the differential diagnosis, a metastasis of a Schmincke-Regaud tumor and a malignant lymphoma should be considered. Including our 2 cases, a total of 30 cases have been reported: 14 male patients aged between 33 and 73 years and 12 female patients between 38 and 70 years; in 4 cases there was no reference to sex or age. Most of the patients were Asians, mainly Chinese. These tumors presented with nearly the same frequency in both lungs. They mostly appeared as peripheral coin lesions in the chest X-ray study. Lymph node metastases were found in approximately 25% of the cases. Hematogenous metastases seldom occurred and were observed almost only in the skeletal system. In most cases a lobectomy was performed. At present, no exact assertion is possible regarding the prognosis. An association with an Epstein-Barr virus infection was observed in the Asian patients, but not in the Caucasian patients.