Increasing evidence suggests that there is a close relationship between pulmonary ground-glass opacity (GGO) and early-stage lung cancer, especially bronchial alveolar carcinoma in the early stage. With the use of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), more and more GGO patients have been identified. Correct diagnosis and surgical indications should be determined according to the image characteristics including proportion and size of GGO in a pulmonary nodule as well as intraoperative quick pathological examination to avoid unnecessary surgical resection. Therefore, early detection and correct diagnosis of GGO are very important to improve patient prognosis.
A microsatellite is a short, repetitive sequence of DNA (usually 2 to 4 nucleotides in length). Multiple primary lung cancers (MPLC) are more than one primary lung cancer lesions arising synchronously in different locations of the same or different side of the lung. These neoplasms may have same or different histological types, but one lesion is not a metastasis from another, as each neoplasm arises independently in the lung. Abnormal microsatellite changes are closely related to the pathogenesis and development of MPLC. In this review, several aspects are discussed:①definition and origin of microsatellite; ②abnormal changes of microsatellite; ③definition and categories of MPLC; ④the influence of microsatellite on early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of MPLC.
