[Distribution of lung cancer metastases. II. Effect of tumor histology]

Abstract

The various histological types of 1,283 lung cancers show remarkable differences in sex distribution, in mean age at the time of death, in the localization of tumors and duration of cancer disease as well as in their metastatic behaviour. The proportion of the various histological types of lung cancer in ten organs with blood borne metastases has been analysed. Metastases of small cell carcinomas most frequently occur in pancreas, liver, thyroid gland, bone and adrenal, whereas squamous cell carcinomas are found in kidney and heart. Anepidermic squamous cell carcinomas are most frequently seen in brain and large cell carcinomas in the spleen. As already mentioned in the preceding paper, combinations of metastatic affected organs can be seen with special frequencies in all histological types of lung cancer. However, small cell carcinomas provide the most evident findings.