Lung Cancer Associated With Cystic Airspaces

Abstract

Progressive wall thickening or appearance/increase of a nodule inside or outside a cystic airspace should raise suspicion of lung cancer irrespective of FDG uptake.

Solitary ground-glass opacity nodules of stage IA pulmonary adenocarcinoma: combination of 18F-FDG PET/CT and high-resolution computed tomography features to predict invasive adenocarcinoma

“…There was significant difference of D GGN and D solid between IAC and AIS-MIA, which is consistent with previous study [17]. There was also markedly statistical significance of cystic appearance between IAC and AIS-MIA, it may be the reason that lung cancer has an association with cystic appearance [36] and especially there was significant difference in cystic appearance between pure GGN and mixed GGN [37]. However, these excluded HRCT features interfered with both SUV max and CTR via binary logistic regression analyses.…”

Cyst-related primary lung malignancies: an important and relatively unknown imaging appearance of (early) lung cancer

“…https://doi.org/10.1183/16000617. Prior studies have proposed a classification of four subtypes of cyst-related lung malignancies, based on the location and morphology of the solid component in relation to the cystic area [6,11]. Type 1 and 2 are described as a cystic airspace with an exophytic or endophytic solid nodule, respectively; type 3 are described as a cystic airspace with an asymmetrical or circumferential wall thickening; and type 4 are described as a multilocular cystic lesion with interposed solid tissue.…”

“…Figure 2 provides examples of these four cyst-related primary lung malignancy subtypes. MASCALCHI et al [6] added type 4 as a separate imaging subtype to the original classification of MAKI et al [11]. This subtype seems to be more often associated with some ground-glass components and may be somewhere on the interface between solid and subsolid cyst-related lung cancers.…”

“…Exact numbers on incidence of primary lung cancers presenting as cyst-related lesions are unknown, but estimates range between 0.5% and 4% [5,7,8]. We and others [6,7] have found several cases where lesions eventually progress into solid nodules or masses, and it is therefore likely that the incidence of this entity is in fact underestimated and either not always imaged or recognised at an early stage, as illustrated in figure 1.…”

“…Terminology used in prior literature includes "( peri)cystic adenocarcinoma" and "cancers in association with cystic airspaces". The entity has been reported on in a few smaller original studies [5][6][7][8][9], which were recently summarised in an imaging review paper [10]. In total, less than 100 cases have been reported, originating from both a screening and a…”