PULMONARY CARCINOSARCOMA - DIAGNOSTIC PROBLEMS AND DETERMINANTS OF THE PROGNOSIS

Objective. Bronchopulmonary carcinosarcoma is a very rare tumor and th e prognosis of patients with carcinosarcoma is assessed as unfavourabl e. The problems concerning diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis after res ection treatment are discussed with reference to our seven cases and w ith consideration of the pertinent literature. Methods. The retrospect ive data of seven patients with pulmonary carcinosarcoma were analysed . All were staged postoperatively according to the international TNM s taging system. The diagnosis was verified by immunohistochemical inves tigation. The prognosis of the patients with carcinosarcoma was compar ed with the prognosis of patients with non-small cell carcinoma of the lung. Results. Whether lung resection is the treatment of choice for these patients is of no relevance, because in most cases the preoperat ive diagnosis is incomplete, as only one component of the tumor, namel y the epithelial one, is found in the biopsy specimen. The complete an d correct diagnosis in five of the seven cases was not made before the resection had been performed and in the remaining two patients it was only made when tumor recurrence or metastases occurred. The prognosis of patients with carcinosarcoma of the lung is assessed to be compara ble to that of patients with other pulmonary carcinoma: in this study survival times ranged from only 3 months (T2N3) to 4 years 6 months (T 3N1). The causes of death of the patients with carcinosarcoma were loc al recurrence in four patients and metastases at distant sites in two. Two recurrent tumors as well as the metastases consisted only of the sarcoma component of the primary tumor histologically. Conclusion. One may suggest that the prognosis of carcinosarcoma might be determined by the sarcoma component of the tumor. Therefore the generally accepte d therapies of soft tissue sarcomas should be adopted for the follow-u p treatment of patients with pulmonary carcinosarcoma.