When your lung was biopsied, the samples taken were studied under the microscope by a specialized doctor with many years of training called a pathologist. The pathologist sends your doctor a report that gives a diagnosis for each sample taken. Information in this report will be used to help manage your care. The questions and answers that follow are meant to help you understand medical language you might find in the pathology report you received for your biopsy.
If the carcinoma cells are only in the top layer of cells of the bronchi, bronchioles, or alveoli, without growing into the deeper layers below, it is called in-situ carcinoma. This is considered a pre-cancer.
Carcinoma is the most common kind of lung cancer. In fact, when someone says they have lung cancer, they usually mean that they have a carcinoma.
