Prognostic significance of basement membrane deposition in operable squamous cell carcinomas of the lung
Article Abstract:
Cancer researchers continue to look for factors that may serve to more accurately predict the outcome of the disease. In the case of squamous cell carcinomas of the lung, a form of lung cancer, one factor that may prove useful in making a more accurate prognosis is the deposition of basement membrane. Tissues are more than just a pile of cells; basement membrane is a complex substance on which and within which the cells grow. A study was undertaken to correlate prognoses with the patterns of basement membrane in 68 cases of squamous cell lung cancer. All cases were operable cancer of Stage I or Stage II. Since basement membrane contains type IV collagen, antibodies against collagen IV were used to immunohistochemically stain the specimens for microscopic examination, making the basement membrane easily identifiable. When this was done, microscopic slides could be categorized as having either extensive basement membrane or moderate-limited basement membrane. In specimens from six patients, no basement membrane could be detected. Twenty-seven of the specimens had extensive basement membrane and 35 had moderate-limited basement membrane. When the data were compiled, it was found that the patients with extensive basement membrane survived longer on average than patients with moderate or limited basement membrane. Furthermore, statistical analysis showed that the extent of basement membrane was not correlated with any of the conventional prognostic factors. Therefore, basement membrane deposition is an independent prognostic factor in cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Cancer
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0008-543X
Year: 1991
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Significant changes in the distribution of histologic types of lung cancer: a review of 4928 cases
Article Abstract:
Lung cancer is on the rise in the United States. At present, over 150,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. The disease accounts for almost 140,000 deaths in the same period. The death rate from lung cancer among men has risen from 40 per 100,000 per year in 1962 to 75 per 100,000 in 1985. Among women, the rate rose from 7 per 100,000 to 27 per 100,000. However, lung cancer exists in a variety of forms, and the spectrum of lung cancer types has shifted over recent years. In a review of 4,928 patients with lung cancer over the period from 1964 to 1985, the relative incidence of different histological types of lung cancer was analyzed. Squamous cell carcinoma remains the most common type of lung cancer overall, with the majority of cases being among men. It accounted for 37 percent of the cases in 1985, which is down from the full 50 percent it represented in 1964. Among women, squamous cell carcinoma accounted for 23 percent of the cases, which places it behind small cell carcinoma at 30 percent and adenocarcinoma which accounts for 40 percent of the cases of lung cancer in women. The incidence of small cell carcinoma is rising in both sexes; however, the rate of increase is much greater among women than among men. The increase among women is sufficiently great that small cell carcinoma may soon be the most common form of lung cancer among women. This increase is likely to result in an increased death rate as well, and a poorer prognosis for lung cancer patients, as small cell lung cancer is the most malignant of the histologic types of lung cancer. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Cancer
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0008-543X
Year: 1990
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Scar carcinomas of the lung in a histoplasmosis endemic area
Article Abstract:
For over 50 years some types of lung cancers were known to occur with scars. For may years, it was believed that the tissue alterations of the scar gave rise to the tumor; now opinion has shifted to the belief that the tumor creates the scar. Part of the difficulty of answering these questions arises from the fact that scar tissue is difficult or impossible to effectively date. This is not true, however, with the scar tissue resulting from histoplasmosis. Histoplasma capsulatum, the causative organism, is a fungus which grows like a mold in the soil but develops like a yeast in tissues. The granuloma that forms around Histoplasma in the lung is characteristic, and in parts of the United States where histoplasmosis is endemic, these lesions are acquired quite young. Microscopic examination of pulmonary carcinomas revealed that they could be grouped into two major types, Type I, or mucinous, and Type II, or nonmucinous. Type I cancers were never found in conjunction with histoplasma-like yeast cells, whereas five of eight Type II carcinomas examined were. Since the Histoplasma-associated scars were quite old, it was presumed that they preceded the development of the cancer. Observation clearly shows that there is not one single type of carcinoma associated with scar tissue. There are at least two, and the histological characteristics of the tumors associated with old Histoplasma scars are distinct from the scars associated with mucin-secreting carcinomas. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Cancer
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0008-543X
Year: 1990
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