A clinicopathological study of 16 autopsy cases of anthracosilicosis with lung cancer

Objective: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of anthracosilicosis complicated with lung cancer.

Methods: Tissue specimens from 16 autopsy cases of 0(+) anthracosilicosis complicated with lung cancer were retrospectively studied by hematoxylin-eosin, histochemical, and immunohistochemical staining.

Results: All of 16 patients were male. The patient's age ranged from 46 to 57 years (average: 52.8 years). The dust-exposure time were over 25 years. The pneumoconiosis and dust fibrosis of different degrees in the lung were found. The positive detected rate of coal silicotic nodules was 93.75% (15/16). Among 16 cases of lung cancer, there were 5 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, and 5 cases of small cell undifferentiated carcinoma, 3 cases of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, 2 cases of adenocarcinoma and 1 case of adenosquamous carcinoma. The typical pathological changes of anthracosilicosis complicated with lung cancer were: the cancer tissue was located at the side of coal dust fibrous focus and fibrosis lesion, or mixte with silicotic lesion. CK, EMA and CEA were positively expressed in most of the tumor cells, while vimentin was positive in the fibrocyte of dust fibrosis.

Conclusions: The occurrence of some lung cancer may be related with fibrosis. The dust-exposed workers can suffer from lung cancer which is histologically identical to the general lung tumor. PCNA and Ki67 may be a prognostic index for anthracosilicosis with lung cancer, while vimentin may be a marker for the examination of dust fibrosis in anthracosilicosis.