The adenosquamous lung carcinoma: clinical and pathological characteristics.

The adenosquamous carcinoma is a rare combined tumour of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The survival prognosis of surgically treated patients with adenosquamous carcinoma and patients with squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma were compared during a study. Two hundred and seventyfive patients who had been treated surgically because of primary lung cancer in the Department of Thoracic-Surgery at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg between 1980 and 1989 were evaluated. The five year survival study of 172 patients who underwent resection because of squamous cell carcinoma was 45%, the one of patients with adenocarcinoma (n = 84) was 27%. 26% was the five year survival rate of the patients (n = 9) with large cell carcinoma. Of 13 patients (4%) with adenosquamous carcinoma none survived five years after surgical treatment. The two year survival rate was 28%. The presented results demonstrate the poor survival prognosis of patients suffering from adenosquamous carcinoma and ask for an adjuvant therapy.