Correlative histopathological and immunohistochemical study of small in cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the lung biopsy and cytology specimens

ABSTRACT

Thirty cases of lung carcinoma specimens, collected by open biopsy [9 cases], bronchoscopic biopsy [21 cases], in additional to five cases of broncheal brush cytology and 15 cases of plural fluid aspiration cytology were examined histopathologically, cytologically and immunohistochemically. Differentiation between small and large cell carcinoma by light microscopic examination was more or less difficult especially with small biopsy specimens. Meanwhile, small cells with large amount of cytoplasm were distinguished from large cells by the assessment of the nucleus, cytoplasm, nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, cell arrangmement and the positivity of large cells to cytokeratin. Criteria for diagnosing adenocarcinoma were cell arrangement and mucin positivity by mucicarmin stain. Occasional cases show cytokeratin positive granules