Clinical value and pathologic basis of cystic airspace within subsolid nodules confirmed as lung adenocarcinomas by surgery

Abstract Purpose. To investigate the clinical value and pathologic basis of cystic airspace within lung adenocarcinomas manifesting as subsolid nodules. Patients and Methods. A retrospective study was conducted on a total of 541 surgically confirmed lung adenocarcinomas manifesting as subsolid nodules in computed tomography images, including 87 cases with cystic airspace and 454 cases without cystic airspace. The pathologic characteristics of the cases with and without cystic airspace were compared. The investigation of the pathologic structure of cystic airspace was attempted on the postoperative paraffin sections. Results. There was a significant difference in the containing of cystic airspace between preinvasive and invasive adenocarcinomas (10.5 vs 26.6%; P Conclusions. Cystic airspace may be a reliable predictor of invasive adenocarcinomas, the classification method based on the number of cystic airspaces might be suitable for the computed tomography-based typing of cystic airspace within subsolid nodules. Cystic airspace may derive from the destroyed and enlarged bronchi owing to the growth or infiltration of atypical hyperplasia and/or tumor cells.