Prognosis of resected stage I bronchioloalveolar carcinoma of the lung

: In this retrospective study, we investigated the prognosis of 25 patients with resected bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) of 3.0 cm or less in diameter. We assigned a diagnosis of BAC for non-invasive tumors as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) classification. The patients ranged in age from 47 to 78 years with an average of 64.0 years. Eighteen patients (72%) were male and 7 patients (28%) were female. All the patients underwent complete resection. As the mode of surgical resection, at least lobectomy was performed in 84%. Sections of the resected tumor were stained by HE and Elastica, and then examined by light microscopy. The tumors ranged in size from 0.5 to 3.0 cm with an average of 1.9 cm. Neither pleural involvement nor vascular permeation was seen in BACs. There was also no lymph node involvement for BACs. The 5-year disease-free survival rate of all 25 patients with BAC was 100%. The unequivocally recognizing invasive features by morphology is important for a prospect of the prognosis of resected BACs.