Clinical, Diagnostic, and Laboratory Characteristics of Patients with Bronchoalveolar Carcinoma

Abstract

Bronchoalveolar carcinoma (BAC) is a subtype of adenocarcinoma, representing less than 5% of all primary lung tumors. Data are scarce on this type of tumor in Brazil. Objective: The objective was to study the characteristics of patients with BAC treated at the thoracic oncology outpatient department of UNIFESP. Methods: This was a retrospective study of data collected from the patient clinical records at the thoracic oncology outpatient department. Results: Of 1,617 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma, 45 (2.8%) had a diagnosis of BAC. There was a slight predominance of females (53.5%), more than 70% of patients were white, and 64.4% had a history of smoking. The main symptoms were cough (80%), expectoration (68.9%), and dyspnea (60%). Patients reached our outpatient service after an average of 10.27 months. The predominant radiological images showed a diffuse pattern. The diagnostic method used in most patients was bronchoscopy (71.1%). Conclusions: Our data are consistent with those in the international literature. Most diagnoses in our outpatient department are obtained by bronchoscopic biopsy.