Tracheobronchial epithelial multinucleation in malignant disease.

Multinucleated tracheobronchial ciliated epithelial cells seen in smears from 112 patients suffering from a wide variety of malignant tumors were found to be 2.08 times more numerous than in a control group comparable in sex, age (decades), and smoking habit but without prediagnosed malignancies. The recognition of this phenomenon may lead to the development of a new test for the diagnosis of occult cancer and may open new pathways for investigation of cancer-host relationships.