Typical and atypical bronchopulmonary carcinoids. A clinicopathologic and flow cytometric study.

The clinicopathologic and flow cytometric characteristics of 47 bronchopulmonary carcinoids were assessed, relative to patient survival. Aneuploidy was associated more often with tumor size of greater than or equal to 3.0 cm (P less than 0.004) and lymph node (P less than 0.013) or vascular involvement (P less than 0.004). Also, an aneuploid DNA content was seen significantly more often in histologically atypical (79%) than in typical carcinoid neoplasms (18%) (P less than 0.0001). Cox proportional hazard model analysis revealed that the histologic category (typical vs. atypical) and ploidy pattern were important prognostic indicators. Size of the primary tumor and the presence of vascular involvement were also significant predictors of outcome. Histologically atypical carcinoids with diploid DNA content pursued a less aggressive course than did their aneuploid counterparts.