Pathology of lung cancer

Abstract

In this review, we focus on a number of developments pertaining to lung cancer diagnosis, entirely restricted to those parameters assessable by light microscopy. A number of discrete areas of interest stand out in 1996 related to the pathology of lung cancer. Aberrant p53 expression continues to be debated as an independent prognostic factor in nonsmall cell carcinoma. Neuroendocrine differentiation may be an independent prognostic factor in nonsmall cell carcinoma and new associations with the protein product of the bcl-2 oncogene have been described. Angiogenesis continues to arise as a predictor of metastatic potential in lung cancer. Finally, we review conceptual aspects of carcinogenesis from atypical adenomatous hyperplasia to bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, in addition to a variety of individual tumor-related issues associated with progression, response to chemotherapy, and survival.