Clinical and Pathological Findings on Intra-pulmonary Spreads and Terminal Pulmonary Changes of Disseminated Bronchiolo-alveolar Carcinoma: Report of Five Autopsy Cases

19790417Five autopsy cases of bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma seen between 1973 and 1977 were studied in the point of clinico-pathological correlations. Histological findings of three patients with large amounts of sputum, no metastatic manifestations, and bronchogenic spread of infiltrative tumors in chest roentgenogram, were consisted of uniform tall columnar cell with mucin secretion. In these cases, tumor cells did not invade blood and lymphatic vessels, and extrathoracic metastases seen rarely. On the other hand, two cases of bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma consisted of low columnar or cuboidal cells showed early extrathoracic metastasis clinically and pathologically. The rout of intra-pulmonary metastasis in these cases seemed to be hematogeneous because of simultaneous and uniformly dissemination of multiple nodular lesions in chest roentgenogram.