Features of growth of peripheral lung cancer according to the results of macroscopic and cytological research

We studied the peripheral lung cancer (PLC) in the bronchial sheath and the changes of their mucous membranes in 21 patients, which were examined and treated at the National Cancer Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Ours task was to compare macroscopic characteristics of surgical tumor materials with the results of preoperative cytological preparations of exfoliate materials – fibrobronchoscopy and sputum. Cytological samples were stained using the Pappenheim and Papanicolaou methods and examined using the Olympus CX21 microscope, with the magnification: X200, X400, X900. The goal of the study was to determine the characteristics of growth of peripheral lung cancer with the bronchial sheath. Depending on the lesion of the mucous membrane closest to the tumor of the bronchus, patients were divided into 3 groups. The first group included 12 (57 %) patients in whom the bronchial mucosa was not changed. In 2 (17 %) of them, tumor cells were found in cytological smears before surgery. The second group consisted of 2 (10 %) patients which had the mucous membrane closest to the bronchial tumor had minimal changes without exophytic tumor growth. In cytological preparations of these patients, tumor cells are not found. The third group of 7 (33 %) patients with closest to the bronchus tumor mucous membrane showed a small exophytic tumor growth with unchanged surface of the mucous membrane. Using the cytological method, we detected that only 2 (29 %) patients had cancer cells. The detected cancer cells in the cytological smears most likely are derived from a soft parenchymal tumor. Thus, the results of the research indicate that the epithelium of mucous membrane of the bronchi in most cases is unchanged, which precludes the onset of PLC development, and the definition – “bronchogenic” cancer has no morphological basis. Tumor tissue of the lung parenchyma and unchanged closest to tumour bronchus, which “collapses” into the soft tumor, indirectly indicates the alveolar epithelium as an origin of PLC, which confirm by notable experimental data.Manuscript received 19.04.2020