Giant cell adenocarcinoma of the lung

The 63 giant cell adenocarcinomas of the lung which were found among 592 primary lung carcinomas in 25,785 necropsies during the period from 1945 through 1957 at the Los Angeles County Hospital were studied in detail by histochemical methods. These tumors constitute 10.3% of the primary pulmonary lung carcinomas in this group. Giant cell adenocarcinomas can be separated from the other types of lung carcinomas only by their characteristic morphology and by the demonstration of intracytoplasmic mucin. Their most striking clinical feature was the short survival time which paralleled that of small cell carcinoma of the lung.