Results of surgical resection for patients with large cell carcinoma of the lung.
OBJECTIVE
The clinical features of large cell carcinoma (LCC) of the lung have remained unclear due to the low incidence of the disease. This study investigated the clinicopathological features and the surgical outcome in patients with LCC.


METHODS
This study clinicopathologically evaluated 975 patients who had undergone a resection for non-small cell carcinoma between 1994 and 2007. There were 57 (5.8%) patients with LCC among them.


RESULTS
The LCC patients included 49 males and 8 females and included 9 patients with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. All patients excluding 1 had a smoking habit. The mean smoking pack-year index was 49.9 in the patients with LCC, 27.1 in 625 patients with adenocarcinoma, and 52.5 in 266 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, and this was significantly higher in the patients with LCC than in those with adenocarcinoma. The mean tumor diameter was 38 mm for LCC, 28 mm for adenocarcinoma, and 39 mm for squamous cell carcinoma. The pathological stage was IA in 11 patients, IB in 11, II in 12, IIIA in 16, IIIB in 5, and IV in 2. The post-operative 5-year survival rate was 60.5% for LCC, 64.3% for large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, 67.0% for adenocarcinoma, and 50.1% for squamous cell carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
The tumor diameter was significantly larger for LCC than for adenocarcinoma at the time of diagnosis. The proportion of smokers and the smoking pack-year index in patients with LCC were significantly higher than those of adenocarcinoma. The surgical results were similar between LCC and other non-small cell lung carcinomas.
Hanagiri
Takeshi
T
Second Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu 807, Japan. hanagiri@med.uoeh-u.ac.jp
Oka
Souichi
S
Takenaka
Satoru
S
Baba
Tetsuro
T
Yasuda
Manabu
M
Ono
Kenji
K
So
Tomoko
T
Uramoto
Hidetaka
H
Takenoyama
Mitsuhiro
M
Yasumoto
Kosei
K
D001999:Bronchoscopy; D018287:Carcinoma, Large Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome