Korean J Pathol.  2013 Feb;47(1):16-20.

Morphologic Analysis of Pulmonary Neuroendocrine Tumors

• Lee SS
• Kang M
• Ha SY
• An J
• Roh MS
• Ha CW
• Han J

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Few studies on how to diagnose pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors through morphometric analysis have been reported. In this study, we measured and analyzed the characteristic parameters of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors using an image analyzer to aid in diagnosis.
METHODS
Sixteen cases of typical carcinoid tumor, 5 cases of atypical carcinoid tumor, 15 cases of small cell carcinoma, and 51 cases of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma were analyzed. Using an image analyzer, we measured the nuclear area, perimeter, and the major and minor axes.
RESULTS
The mean nuclear area was 0.318+/-0.101 microm2 in typical carcinoid tumors, 0.326+/-0.119 microm2 in atypical carcinoid tumors, 0.314+/-0.107 microm2 in small cell carcinomas, and 0.446+/-0.145 microm2 in large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas. The mean nuclear circumference was 2.268+/-0.600 microm in typical carcinoid tumors, 2.408+/-0.680 microm in atypical carcinoid tumors, 2.158+/-0.438 microm in small cell carcinomas, and 3.247+/-1.276 microm in large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas. All parameters were useful in distinguishing large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma from other tumors (p=0.001) and in particular, nuclear circumference was the most effective (p=0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
Pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors showed nuclear morphology differences by subtype. Therefore, evaluation of quantitative nuclear parameters improves the accuracy and reliability of diagnosis.

Keyword

Typical carcinoid tumor; Atypical carcinoid tumor; Carcinoma, small cell; Carcinoma, large cell; Carcinoma, neuroendocrine; Pulmonary neuroendocrine tumor

MeSH Terms

Carcinoid Tumor
Carcinoma, Large Cell
Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine
Carcinoma, Small Cell
Neuroendocrine Tumors