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. 2009 Aug;16(4):9–21. doi: 10.3747/co.v16i4.465

TABLE III.

Stereotypes in lung cancera

Squamous Adenocarcinoma Large-cell
Current or ex-smoker Never-smoker
Pathology Typical bac component; may be mucinous; ttf-1 helpful Any bac component will be non-mucinous; ttf-1 helpful Heterogonous; may have neuroendocrine features
Demography Often an older male, heavy (ex-) smoker Male > female Female > male; any age; common in East Asian individuals Often an older male, heavy smoker
Clinical Often proximal primary, may cavitate, paraneoplastic hypercalcemia, clubbing prominent, hemoptysis risk high Primary may be more distal; can have clubbing; brain metastases, especially if female or elevated ldh Primary may be distal, can be multifocal; tendency to brain metastases; do not have clubbing Aggressive cancer; may metastasize to brain
Molecular ras mutated type rare; EGFR mutated type nonexistent (?); egfr overexpression (by ihc) common; egfr fish+ ±25%; higher ts levels ras mutated type approximately 45% in North America (approximately 17% in Asia), especially poorly differentiated; EGFR mutated type occurs, but <10% in North America (approximately 30% in Asia); lower ts levels; incidence of egfr fish+ (approximately 25% ?) EGFR mutated type occurs in approximately 60% Asian individuals, and approximately 30% Caucasian individuals; especially well differentiated; activating codon 12/13; KRAS mutations do not occur; lower ts levels; non-classical ras mutations may occur; significance (?) ras mutation incidence unclear, may be rare; no EGFR mutations; TS levels (low, unless neuroendocrine subtype); egfr fish (?)
a

The relationships between clinical stereotypes, histology, and biomarkers are generally tentative. This table should be used with caution; it is intended to provide clues when definitive histologic or biomarker data (or both) are unavoidably lacking.

bac = bronchioloalveolar carcinoma; ttf-1 = thyroid transcription factor-1; ldh = lactate dehydrogenase; ihc = immunohistochemistry; fish = fluorescence in situ hybridization; ts = thymidylate synthase.