Bilateral bronchioloalveolar lung carcinoma: is there a place for palliative pneumonectomy?

A case of bilateral invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma of the lung with severe productive cough and dyspnea successfully treated with palliative lung lobectomy

Invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma (IMA) of the lung is a chemo-refractory type of lung cancer with frequent intrapulmonary dissemination. Patients with IMA of the lung often suffer from a productive cough and rapid deterioration of performance status (PS). There is currently no standard therapeutic strategy against this unrelenting condition. Here we report a patient with bilateral IMA of the lung with severe productive cough and dyspnea successfully controlled by palliative lung lobectomy. A 67-year-old Japanese man presented with a 3-month history of productive cough. Chest computed tomography (CT) revealed a mass lesion in the left lower lobe and a small nodule and multiple thin-walled cystic lesions in the right lung. He was diagnosed with stage IIB IMA of the lung. Over the next two weeks, his productive cough and dyspnea drastically worsened and his PS declined from 0 to 4. Chest CT showed increases in size of both the nodule and cystic lesions in the right lung and the mass lesion in the left lower lobe. He was re-diagnosed as stage IVA. Given the extreme heterogeneity of the tumor distribution, we decided to perform palliative resection of the left lower lobe. After the surgery, he experienced complete relief of respiratory symptoms, and his PS improved dramatically, enabling chemotherapy. Thirty-one months after surgery, he maintains good PS. In conclusion, our report suggests that aggressive introduction of palliative lung lobectomy played a substantial role for in the excellent outcome of our patient with relatively well confined, advanced-stage IMA.

Successful pulmonary arterial embolization followed by curative surgery for a lepidic predominant lung adenocarcinoma with severe hypoxemia

Background

Lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma is characterized by frequent refractory hypoxemia due to intrapulmonary shunting. Severe hypoxemia can induce perioperative complications in case of thoracic surgery.

Case presentation

We report a case of a 67 year-old woman with localized lepidic adenocarcinoma in the right lower lobe with severe hypoxemia. A selective arterial lung embolization allowed an instantaneous correction of the hypoxemia, and a curative lobectomy was safely performed 1 week after without any complication. The staging was pT3N0M0, and the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy.

Conclusions

This is the first case-report of successful endovascular embolization before curative surgery for a lepidic predominant lung adenocarcinoma.

Palliative embolisation for intrapulmonary shunting in lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma of the lung

Lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma (LPA) (formerly known as bronchioalveolar carcinoma) has rarely been reported to cause refractory hypoxia with intrapulmonary shunting [1–7]. We describe a case who underwent the palliative strategy of intravascular right lower pulmonary artery embolisation with an 18 mm Amplatzer II vascular plug to reduce intrapulmonary shunting. This is the first report we are aware of using this minimally invasive procedure to treat this condition.

[Therapeutic management of extensive bronchiolo-alveolar adenocarcinoma: chemotherapy or inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase?]

Although the 1999 WHO classification, revised in 2004 excludes stage IIIB-IV tumors from the definition of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) because they are unresectable, the first international workshop (November 2004, New York) devoted to this tumor emphasized the continuum between the BAC as defined by the WHO and adenocarcinomas with a BAC-like component which presents similar epidemiological, biological, clinical, radiological, prognostic and therapeutic features. These observations led to the suggestion to no include stage IIIB-IV ADC-BAC in studies designed for other non-small-cell lung cancers. The purpose of this review was to analyze the results of prospective studies currently available concerning the treatment of stage IIIB-IV ADC-BAC. No evidence is available with combination regimens using platine. Monotherapy with paclitaxel appears to have efficacy similar to inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (gefitinib and erlotinib) (TKI-EGFR). The tolerance profile is in favor of using TKI-EGFR. It would appear that tumors responding to paclitaxel and to TKI-EGFR correspond to different diseases. These observations point out the importance of further studies examining the proper strategy and to search for new compounds for the treatment of extensive ADC-BAC.

Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma: a review

Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) is classified as a subset of lung adenocarcinoma but has a distinct clinical presentation, tumor biology, response to therapy, and prognosis compared with other subtypes of non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma disproportionately affects women, never-smokers, and Asians and is characterized by growth along alveolar septae without evidence of stromal, vascular, or pleural invasion. Although pure BAC accounts for approximately 4% of lung cancers, tumors with histologically mixed BAC and adenocarcinoma account for > 20% of all NSCLCs, and the incidence of BAC might be increasing. Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma histology is most commonly found in small lesions identified incidentally on chest radiographs or computed tomography scans and might represent a precursor lesion to invasive adenocarcinoma. As with other subsets of NSCLC, surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment. Patients with unresectable BAC are more likely to respond to the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib than patients with other subtypes of NSCLC. Stage for stage, patients with BAC have a higher rate of long-term survival but might have an increased rate of intrathoracic recurrence than patients with other subtypes of NSCLC.