25127              BRONCHIAL CARCINOMA

The patient was a man aged 75 with a 1-year history of weight loss and anorexia, cough with sputum, increasing breathlessness and a generalised weakness.  He had smoked 20 cigarettes/day for 60 years.  There were signs of collapse of the right lung and X-ray showed complete opacification with shift of the mediastinal structures to the right.  He died after 2 weeks in hospital.

The specimen consists of the right lung sectioned to show a massive carcinoma arising from the hilar region and extending in continuity as a solid fleshy partly necrotic mass into the posterior segment of the upper lobe and the apical segment of the lower lobe.  The periphery of the lung shows mild focal emphysema with anthracosis and there is an apical scar with underlying fibrosis and bullous emphysema.  Histology shows an anaplastic squamous carcinoma.