Cytologic diagnosis of basal cell (basaloid) carcinoma of the lung. A report of two cases.

Basal cell (basaloid) carcinoma (BC) of the lung is a recently described variant of bronchogenic carcinoma reported to behave as an aggressive, non-small cell lung carcinoma. It may exist in pure form or be mixed with other non-small cell carcinoma patterns. We report the cytologic features in two cases of BC and compare the findings with those in five cases of biopsy-confirmed anaplastic small cell carcinoma, which BC closely mimics.