[Role of anatomopathological studies in the evaluation of the risk of lung cancer caused by passive smoking ].

The current practice as regards the treatment of lung cancers consists of establishing a diagnosis of possible cancer and treating the patient as quickly as possible. However, the distinction between a primary neoplasm and metastases coming from an extrapulmonary primary cancer unfortunately can only be made with certainty in those cases which have a necropsy. However, epidemiological studies which are intended to evaluate the possible correlation between passive smoking and primary lung cancers are based on the available diagnoses, which themselves are often established uniquely on cytological examination or on biopsies of bronchi or pleura. The formal proof that the patients are suffering from primary pulmonary cancer thus does not exist in numerous cases cited and the confirmation of the existence of the risk between passive smoking and primary pulmonary cancer remains speculative.