Coexistence of carcinoid tumor and adenocarcinoma of the lung; morphological, immunohistochemical and genetic analyses, a case report

Background Pulmonary carcinoid tumors rarely coexist with non-small cell lung carcinoma, and only nine cases have been reported previously. The pathogenesis and origin of these combined tumors remain unclear because of its rarity. Case presentation We examined two cases of adenocarcinoma coexisting with a typical or atypical carcinoid tumor: Case 1 was a 77-year-old woman and Case 2 was an 83-year-old woman. Both of these cases had no respiratory symptoms, and underwent pulmonary lobectomies due to incidentally detected lung nodules. Recurrence and metastases were not detected after the surgery. Histologically, carcinoid and adenocarcinoma components were present in both cases. The two components coexisted without mixing with each other. Next-generation sequencing was performed on the two components in these cases. In each case, no common genetic variants were detected. Conclusion We considered that our cases could histologically and genetically represent collision tumors that did not share common progenitor cells. Comprehensive analyses such as whole genome sequencing could provide important information for elucidating the pathogenesis of adenocarcinoma and carcinoid components.