title: Ground-glass opacities showing an adenoma-to-carcinoma sequence in the lung.
abstract: We encountered a patient with three left lower lobe pulmonary tumors evident as discrete ground-glass opacities by computed tomography. Pathological diagnoses of the resected lesions included a focus of atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) and two localized noninvasive bronchioloalveolar carcinomas (BACs) of types A and C according to Noguchi's classification. This case supports the hypothesis of an adenoma-to-carcinoma sequence in the lung, as the coexisting lesions represented sequential adenocarcinoma progression from a precancerous lesion, AAH, to very early-stage adenocarcinoma, noninvasive BAC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Surgery, 13-1 Higashikaigan-cho, Atami Shizuoka 413-0012, Japan. h.nakamura@iuhw.ac.jp
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taguchi
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitamura
mesh_terms: D002282:Adenocarcinoma, Bronchiolo-Alveolar / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D000236:Adenoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed