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Vol.38 No.2 contents | Japanese/English |
- Original Article -
Lung Cancer Detected after Successful Treatment of Laryngeal Cancer
Akihiko Tanaka, Tei Satou and Atsunobu Nakase*Department of Thoracic Surgery and Cardiovascular Surgery*, Sapporo City General Hospital
Lung cancers were found in five men who had received radical treatment of prior laryngeal cancer. The histological type of the subsequent lung cancer was adenocarcinoma in one case, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in four cases. Since all the laryngeal cancers were SCC, the adenocarcinoma of the lung was automatically diagnosed as a second primary malignant tumor. Although laryngeal and lung cancers were moderately or well differentiated SCC histologically in four cases, the pulmonary lesions were diagnosed as second primary malignancies rather than metastatic lesions because of the successful treatment and early staging of initial laryngeal cancer. All patients were heavy smokers, and their mean age was 73.8 years old. Three patients had two pulmonary tumors located separately in different ipsilaterallobes. These lesions were considered to be multiple primary lung cancers rather than pulmonary metastases because there was no metastasis to any intrapleural lymph nodes histologically and all cases had long survival. Resection of pulmonary tumors was performed for all patients; bilobectomy in one case and a lobectomy combined with wedge resection or segmental excision in three cases. One patient died of recurrent lung cancer after 41 months and four are alive after 6 to 30 months since lobectomy. Three of them are free from cancer. One patient has residual cancer of the bronchial stump in spite of radio-chemotherapy after pulmonary surgery. In follow-up of laryngeal cancer, more attention should be paid to the possibility of a second primary lung cancer and multiple primary lung cancers because early diagnosis and aggressive treatment may prolong survival.
key words: Laryngeal cancer, Lung cancer, Multiple primary malignant tumors, Multiple primary lung cancers
Received: October 13, 1997
Accepted: March 20, 1998
JJLC 38 (2): 131-138, 1998
