The occurrence of bronchioloalveolar lung cancer among our patients

Abstract

One of the subtypes of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), is mentioned as the lung cancer of non-smoking women. We have studied the clinical characteristics of BAC and its surgical treatment. Between 1992 and 2001, lung resections for BAC were performed on 101 patients: 55 men and 46 women, average age 59.7 years. Thirty-two of the patients were non-smokers, and 69 were active smokers. In 1992 the incidence of BAC was 17.5% of all adenocarcinomas, whereas in 2001 it had risen to 51.6%. The operations involved 76 lobectomies, 12 pulmonectomies, 11 wedge resections and 2 explorative thoracotomies. The surgical mortality was 0.9%. The final histologic findings revealed that 82.1% of the tumours were in stages I or II, with 33.7% of the total in stage I/A. The average 5-year survival was 64.3%. Survival for women 75%, was significantly better than that for men, 51% (p=0.045). A significant difference was not found in the 5-year survival rate for multiple tumours or for BAC cases of different histological types. The incidence of BAC, which occurs relatively frequently among women, and exhibits a relatively favourable course, has tended to increase in recent years. A majority of these tumours are removed in an early stage. The survival is not significantly poorer in the event of multiple tumours.