title: Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the lung: a prognostic spectrum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neuroendocrine (NE) tumors of the lung include typical carcinoid (TC), atypical carcinoid (AC), large-cell NE carcinoma (LCNEC), and small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). Their clinicopathologic profiles and relative grade of malignancy have not been defined.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 10 Japanese institutes, 383 surgically resected pulmonary NE tumors were collected. The histologic diagnosis was determined by the consensus of a pathology panel consisting of six expert pathologists as TC, AC, LCNEC, or SCLC on the basis of the WHO classification, and its relationship to clinicopathologic profiles was analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 383 tumors, 18 were excluded because of an improper specimen. The pathology panel reviewed the remaining 366 tumors, and a diagnosis of NE tumor was made in 318 patients (87.4%); 55 patients had TC, nine had AC, 141 had LCNEC, and 113 had SCLC. The 5-year survival rates of patients with all stages were as follows: 96.2% for TC, 77.8% for AC, 40.3% for LCNEC, and 35.7% for SCLC. There was significant prognostic difference between TC and AC as well as between AC and LCNEC+SCLC. However, there was no difference between LCNEC and SCLC, and their survival curves were superimposed. The multivariate analysis indicated that histologic type, completeness of resection, symptoms, nodal involvement, and age were significantly prognostic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The grade of malignancy of NE tumors was upgraded in the following order: TC, AC, LCNEC, and SCLC. No prognostic difference was noted between LCNEC and SCLC. The high-grade NE histology uniformly indicated poor prognosis regardless of its histologic type.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. hasamura@ncc.go.jp
authors.forename: Hisao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Asamura
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kameya
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuno
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yokose
authors.forename: Shi-Xu
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Kinuko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tajima
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagai
mesh_terms: D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate