A Bottleneck of Sputum Cytology in Mass Survey for Lung Cancer: An Approach to Detect Early Lung Cancer by Sputum Cytology

For an approach to early lung cancer detection by sputum cytology, we the studied morphological features of so called “early stage lung cancer cells” seen in the sputum specimens of 22 resected cases of “hilar type” early stage lung cancer. As a result, two types of cancer cells, “superficial cell” and “parabasal cell”, were found in these sputum specimens. Cytological screening needs great care, because the cytoscreener is liable to mistake these cancer cells as normal epithelial cells. It has become easier to detect early lung cancer by looking for not only “superficial cells” but also “parabasal cells”.