Pulmonary epithelium is known to undergo a preneoplastic process prior to the development of lung carcinoma. Squamous dysplasia and atypical adenomatous hyperplasia have been identified and classified as preinvasive lesions of squamous cell carcinoma and peripheral pulmonary adenocarcinoma, respectively. However, these commonly recognized preinvasive lesions do not completely explain the development of all histological types of lung carcinoma. By examining 114 resection lung specimens, we concluded that there are four histological patterns of bronchial epithelial dysplasia based on morphological features (basal cell dysplasia, columnar cell dysplasia, bronchial epithelial dysplasia with transitional differentiation, and squamous dysplasia). The histological patterns were further characterized by immunohistochemistry. Basal cell dysplasia was focally positive for cytokeratin (CK) 17 and 10/13; columnar cell dysplasia was generally positive for CK7, 8, and 18; bronchial epithelial dysplasia with transitional differentiation had a heterogeneous immunoprofile, while squamous dysplasia was positive for CK10/13 and focally positive for CK17. Various degrees of abnormal expression of p53 and Ki-67 were found in the different types of bronchial epithelial dysplasia. The cases were divided into three groups based on degree and extent of bronchial epithelial dysplasia. By Crosstabs McNemar test, the Mann-Whitney U-test (for two independent groups), the Kruskal-Wallis one-way nonparametric ANOVA (for >2 independent groups) and Spearman correlation analysis, the degree and extent of bronchial epithelial dysplasia was shown to be positively correlated with the incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma and multifocal primary lung carcinoma (P<0.05). These findings indicated the following: (1) bronchial epithelium can develop various patterns of dysplasia with abnormal/ambiguous cell differentiation and abnormal expressions of p53 and Ki-67. Thus, these bronchial epithelial dysplastic lesions may represent a preneoplastic process. (2) The degree of bronchial epithelial dysplasia may significantly predispose individuals to bronchogenic carcinoma and multifocal primary lung carcinoma.