Abstract
Most pulmonary adenocarcinomas present with a mixed histological and cytological picture. Traditionally, they have been graded depending on the degree of gland or papilla formation. In 2011, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society recommends that pulmonary adenocarcinomas should be graded based on the predominant growth pattern rather than the least differentiated components as for most other carcinomas [1]. The glandular structures of well-differentiated pulmonary adenocarcinomas resemble more clefts or slits than genuine glands. Reflecting the tremendous plasticity of pulmonary stem cells which eventually give rise to more than 40 different cell types in adult lungs, adenocarcinomatous cells can assume many different cellular shapes which might be present in a single tumor [2, 3]. The vast majority of well-differentiated pulmonary adenocarcinomas show features indicating Clara cell or type II pneumocyte differentiation. The tumor cells are bland with ample cytoplasm except for prominent nucleoli. Characteristically, they have protruding and frizzy luminal surface (papillary) borders [3–5]. Consistent with their Clara cell differentiation, this cellular characteristic of adenocarcinomas contributes to the cleft/slit appearance of malignant glands.
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Sun, X. (2015). Lung and Pleura. In: Well-Differentiated Malignancies. Current Clinical Pathology. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1692-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1692-4_8
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