[Phospholipids and fatty acids in pulmonary surfactant of patients with lung cancer].

The authors present the results of a study on composition of pulmonary surfactant phospholipids and fatty acids in 87 lung cancer patients. The comparison was made between smoking and non-smoking patients, related to ageing, and different histopathological structures of the tumors. Smoking lowered phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol increasing sphingomyelin.