Basics of Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC)

Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma, or BAC,  is a unique subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has unique features in terms of the demographics of who gets it, how it appears on scans, how it often behaves, and potentially in how it responds to treatment.  It is a subset of lung cancer for which most of [...]

Watching Small Lung Lesions Do Nothing: “Ground Glass Opacities” Don’t Progress Over Years If They’re Watched, Not Resected

In one of my earliest posts about bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) (in the dark ages, pre-Twitter), I wrote on the subject of managing small BAC-type lesions, which tend to appear as small hazy areas called “ground glass opacities” (GGOs) and suggested that some of these cancers may be so indolent that they don’t need to be [...]

Round Table Discussion with Experts: Indolent BAC in an Elderly Man

This is the first part of a case presentation I did with two great colleagues: Dr. Anne Tsao, who is a medical oncologist and lung cancer expert at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and Dr. Alex Farivar, who is a terrific thoracic surgeon at my own institution, Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle.
This case is [...]

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Interview with Dr. Matthew Horton, Pathologist, Part 2: Neuroendocrine Lung Tumors & Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma

This is a continuation of my discussion with Dr. Matthew Horton, a pathologist with a special training and a great expertise in lung pathology who works here in Seattle at a company called CellNetix.
This portion of our discussion covers the spectrum of neuroendocrine lung tumors, ranging from carcinoids to small cell lung cancer and large [...]

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An Uplifting Case: Tarceva after Iressa Led to a Great Response

   I just wanted to tell people about a remarkable patient I just saw who is delighted to have had a remarkable response to Tarceva a few years after responding to Iressa.  She made my day.
   In truth, her case was remarkably long before this.  She was diagnosed with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) all the way [...]

BAC No More?

The most expert lung cancer pathologists in the world are planning a revision of the classification of lung adenocarcinomas that is expected to be approved and implemented next year, and it’s going to make some big changes.  Specifically, it’s planning to eliminate the diagnosis of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), reflecting our evolving understanding of this disease.
BAC [...]

New Podcast on the ABCs of BAC

   Here’s a video slide presentation that provides a basic introduction to bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), including the demographics, natural history, imaging appearance, and patterns of response that make it a unique subpopulation within lung cancer.   The audio only version is below the video. 
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  In addition, we’ve got the final slides in pdf form, so people [...]

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Responding to Your Wish List of GRACEcasts to Develop

   I appreciate the input from the people who were interested enough to cast a vote in the poll on the GRACE website, indicated the topic that they’d most like to see next. Here’s an interim report of the top vote-getters:
1) (tie) Locally Advanced NSCLC
1) (tie) The ABCs of BAC
3) (tie) Second Line Therapy for [...]

What I Really Do: BAC and Slowly Progressing Cancers

   In the last few years BAC has become increasingly studied and recognized as a distinct clinical subtype of lung cancer.  The classic BAC syndrome is characterized by progression limited to the lungs, and its growth can be quite variable.  The definition of BAC based on pathology has been applied pretty variably: although it should [...]

Longterm Survival with Iressa in BAC

One of my earliest posts when I started OncTalk was on the use of oral inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), one of the growth signals that is often over-active in cancer cells, against advanced bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), a unique subtype of lung cancer that tends to grow within the [...]