Peritoneoscopy in the staging of 190 patients with small‐cell anaplastic carcinoma of the lung with special reference to subtyping

Peritoneoscopy with liver biopsy was routinely done as a pretreatment staging procedure in 190 patients with small‐cell anaplastic carcinoma of the lung. Subtyping of the patients according to the WHO classification included 28.3% with fusiform cell type (WHO II,1), 28.9% with polygonal cell type (WHO II, 2), 41.5% with lymphocytelike cell type (WHO II, 3) and 1.3% with mixed types (WHO II, 4). Liver metastases were found in 21% of the patients with adequate liver biopsy. In addition macroscopic signs of liver metastases were observed in 9%. No significant differences were observed among the histological subtypes. Liver function tests, such as alkaline phosphatase, LDH and GOT, were of little value in excluding liver metastases. On the other hand, 2 of 3 abnormal liver function tests were highly indicative of liver metastases. In patients with positive liver biopsy, 41% had liver metastases alone and 76% had no other evidence of distant metastatic disease if bone‐marrow involvement identified with bone marrow examination is excluded as a staging procedure.