Clinicopathologic characteristics of adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung

Abstract

Fifty-six cases of surgically resected adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung were studied clinicopathologically, and their outcome was compared with that of adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas of the lung. The frequency rate of adenosquamous carcinoma was 2.6% of 2160 primary lung cancers resected in the National Cancer Center Hospital (Tokyo, Japan). The survival curves of patients with adenosquamous carcinomas, adenocarcinomas, and squamous cell carcinomas indicated that the outcome of adenosquamous carcinoma was poorer than that of adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas, particularly in Stages I and II. The amount of adenocarcinoma component did not affect the survival rate, although the histologic features of metastatic lymph nodes was somewhat influenced by the histologic type of the primary tumors. The histologic subtype of adenosquamous carcinoma was one of the independent prognostic determinants.

Identical epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in adenocarcinomatous and squamous cell carcinomatous components of adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung

“…[24][25][26][27]29 In a series of studies including more than 40 cases, 5-year postoperative survival rates of patients with adenosquamous carcinoma ranged from 18.5% to 36.7%, which were lower than patients with either adenocarcinomas or squamous cell carcinomas. 24,25,28,29 Stage, peripheral location, visceral pleural involvement, and component predominance are the factors associated with poor prognosis in adenosquamous carcinoma. 25,28 Shigematsu et al 16 reported no relation between EGFR mutation status and patient survival in the absence of EGFR kinase inhibitor therapy.…”

“…Owing to the poor prognosis of patients with adenosquamous carcinoma, [24][25][26][27][28][29] other therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcome are needed. Recent studies proved that EGFR mutations are associated with response and survival in patients with NSCLC treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI).…”

Clinicopathological features and surgical outcomes of adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas: a retrospective analysis of patients with resectable stage tumors

“…All of the ASCs are reported to be rare, and are regarded as having a dismal prognosis in comparison to the more common types of the cancer [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. There have been few well-documented studies about ASC of the pancreas because of its rarity [5][6][7].…”

“…Concerning the carcinogenesis of ASC, several possible theories have been proposed, which are divided into monoclonal or polyclonal pathways. The latter is also known as the collision theory, which proposes that two histologically distinct tumors emerge independently and unify, although only a few articles have supported this theory [17,23,27]. Regarding the former theory, the existence of pancreatic cancer stem cells has been suggested since the 1980s [28].…”

“…ASC is also found in the breast, lung, stomach, colon, rectum, anus, uterus and cervix. ASCs in these organs are also rare and regarded as a disease with a dismal prognosis compared to the most common types of the cancers [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. However, there have been few well-documented studies about ASC of the pancreas because of its rarity, and therefore, the cause of the unfavorable prognosis has not yet been clarified.…”