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. 2000 Aug 16;83(5):632–636. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.2000.1317

The association between atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and primary lung cancer

A D Chapman 1, K M Kerr 1
PMCID: PMC2363514  PMID: 10944604

Abstract

Atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) has been suggested as the adenoma in an adenoma–carcinoma sequence in the lung periphery. From 1989–1998, we undertook a systematic, prospective search for AAH in lungs resected for cancer. AAH was found in 67 of 554 patients (12.1%) with primary lung carcinoma (9.2% in male patients and 19.0% in females). AAH was found in lungs bearing adenocarcinoma (23.2%) more frequently than with large cell undifferentiated carcinoma (12.5%) or squamous carcinoma (3.3%). A greater percentage of females with adenocarcinoma had AAH (30.2%) than did males with adenocarcinoma (18.8%). Numbers of AAH ranged from 1–42 per patient and more patients had small numbers of AAH, although 12 patients had 6 or more AAH foci. Larger numbers of AAH tended to be found in adenocarcinoma-bearing lungs. Ten of the 67 patients with AAH and primary lung carcinoma (15%) had multiple primary cancers (range 2–6), all of which were adenocarcinoma. Synchronous cancers were rare in lung tumour-bearing resections without AAH. Patients with AAH show no difference in post-operative survival to those without, for all stages of carcinoma and for Stage I disease alone. This study provides evidence for a strong association between atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and primary lung adenocarcinoma and lends weight to the AAH/adenoma-carcinoma hypothesis. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: AAH, adenocarcinoma, lung, preneoplasia, cancer screening

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Selected References

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