SQUAMOUS-CELL BRONCHIAL-CARCINOMA OCCURRING 8 YEARS AFTER SMALL-CELL CARCINOMA TREATED BY ONLY 3 COURSES OF CHEMOTHERAPY

A case of squamous cell bronchial carcinoma developed 8 years after treatment of a small cell carcinoma is reported. Three hypotheses may be put forward to explain this sequence of events: either a squamous cell line was selected from within an initially mixed tumour, or the small cell carcinoma differentiated into a squamous cell carcinoma, or a second primary tumour developed independently. All this is purely speculative, but the long doubling time implied by the first two hypotheses would be in favour of a second primary tumour.