title: The implication of background anthracosis in the development and progression of pulmonary adenocarcinoma.
abstract: In order to characterize the relationship between background anthracosis and pulmonary adenocarcinogenesis, surgically resected tissues of 66 cases of stage I pulmonary adenocarcinoma, 4 cm or less at their greatest dimension, were examined. These cases were diagnosed based on the classification of small-sized adenocarcinoma of the lung (Noguchi et al., Cancer 75, 1995). Thirteen cases were diagnosed as types A (localized bronchioloalveolar adenocarcinoma, LBAC) and B (LBAC with alveolar collapse), 40 cases as type C (LBAC with a focus of fibroblastic proliferation), 8 as type D (poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma) and 5 as types E (bronchial gland type adenocarcinoma) and F (true papillary adenocarcinoma). The 5-year survival rate of types A and B cases was 100%, while those of type C, type D and types E and F were 52%, 48% and 39%, respectively. Nuclear accumulation of abnormal p53 protein in non-replacement type adenocarcinomas (types D, E and F) was detected more frequently than that in replacement type adenocarcinomas (types A, B and C) (P < 0.05). In each case, black dusty material was extracted from tumorous lesions and non-tumorous regions and blotted onto a nitrocellulose membrane. The anthracotic index (AI) was calculated with a densitometer. AIs of non-tumorous regions in early and replacement type adenocarcinomas (types A and B) were significantly less than in relatively advanced (type C) and poorly differentiated (type D) adenocarcinomas (P < 0.05). These results indicated that adenocarcinoma developing in heavily anthracotic lungs readily progresses to an advanced stage, or that adenocarcinoma with a less favorable prognosis tends to develop in severely anthracotic lungs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
authors.forename: Daye
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: Yujian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Sato
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Konno
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iijima
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Morishita
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noguchi
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000874:Anthracosilicosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging