J Lung Cancer.  2006 Jun;5(1):51-54. 10.6058/jlc.2006.5.1.51.

An Adenocarcinoma of Lung with Unusual Very Slow Growth : A case report

• Jeong HC
• Lee SY
• Oh YH
• In KH
• Kim HG
• Yoo SH

• KMID: 1881527
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.6058/jlc.2006.5.1.51

Abstract

The prognosis of lung cancer is very poor. Patients with lung cancer have usually no symptom in early stage or some mild cough, sputum. When patient feel weight loss or dyspnea, majority of patients with lung cancer are advanced stage and inoperable. The growth rate of lung cancer is different according to cell type of tumor and related to prognosis. Generally, tumor. doubling time (TDT) of lung cancer has been known that small cell lung cancer is about 65 days, squamous cell carcinoma is about 90 days, and adenocarcinoma is about 185 days. There has been rarely reported of lung cancer with very fast or very slow growth. The prognosis of a slow growing lung cancer is relatively good but rapidly growing cancer is not. We report a very rare case that surgicallytreated early stage non-small cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) with 4-year- TDT without invasion or distant metastasis

Keyword

Tumor doubling time; Slow growth; Lung cancer; Adenocarcinoma

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma*
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell
Cough
Dyspnea
Humans
Lung Neoplasms
Lung*
Neoplasm Metastasis
Prognosis
Small Cell Lung Carcinoma
Sputum
Weight Loss

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Chest radiography (A) and HRCT scan (B) at initial presentation, demonstrating a well-defined mult卜septated cavitary lung lesion in the superior segment of the right lower lobe.

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  Fig. 2. Chest radiography (A) and HRCT scan (B) taken 2 years later, demonstrating that the size of lung mass had increased slightly.

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  Fig. 3. Chest radiography (A) and HRCT scan (B) taken 8 years after the initial presentation showing that the cavitary lung mass had increased in size and developed a solid portion.

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  Fig. 4. Percutaneous transthoracic needle aspiration of lung. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain (x 400). The cell-block slide showed a few clusters of atypical cells with irregular nuclei and moderate amounts of cytoplasm, suggestive of adenocarcinoma.

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  Fig. 5. Gross finding of lung cancer in the right lower lobe, during lobectomy.

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  Fig. 6. Well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the lung, showing a bronchi㢌oalveᄋlar carcinoma-like growth pattern with atypical cells lining the alveolar wall (H&E stain, x400).

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