Atypical adenomatous hyperplasia of the lung and its differentiation from adenocarcinoma. Characterization of atypical cells by morphometry and multivariate cluster analysis

✍ Scribed by Masuko Mori; Ryoji Chiba; Tohru Takahashi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1023 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19931015)72:8<2331::aid-cncr2820720808>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

Background. Atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) of the human lung is considered to be an important lesion preceding adenocarcinoma, but its difference from well-differentiated adenocarcinomas is so subtle as to cause diagnostic uncertainty. In view of this, the authors undertook to establish reproducible microscopic criteria for AAH, Type I1 pneumocyte type, and Clara cell type adenocarcinomas.

Methods. Twelve-parameter morphometry of atypical cells was performed on 97 lesions selected from 303 surgical specimens of lung by routine microscopic examination: all were considered by premorphometry examination to correspond to one of the above three diseases. Measurements were performed on photomicrographs using a digital image analyzer. The data of morphometry were subjected to 12-variate cluster analysis using a mainframe computer.

Results. It was demonstrated that the lesions were classifiable into three groups: Cluster 1 (Type I1 cell adenocarcinoma and AAH), Cluster 2 (AAH), and Cluster 3 (Clara cell adenocarcinoma). Whereas the latter two were created as homogeneous clusters, Cluster 1 was a mixture of Type I1 tumors and AAH.