Carcinoma of the Lung

Review of 509 Cases

¹ Departments of Internal Medicine, Ain-Shams University, Cairo, U.A.R. and the Chest Clinic and Springfield Hospital, Grimsby, England

Five hundred nine patients with cancer of the lung were reviewed from Ain-Shams University Hospital, Cairo and Springfield Hospital, Grimsby. It was found nine times more prevalent in men than in women, and cigarette smoking appeared related to the occurrence of the squamous-cell carcinoma.

Symptoms of cough, hemoptysis, weight loss, chest pain and dyspnea were the most common presenting features, but 8.2 per cent were detected by mass radiography. This latter might prove of value in the early detection of lung cancer if periodically used for all men above the age of 40 years. The condition was most prevalent in the upper lobes and only rarely seen in the anterior segments of the lung. Needle biopsy of the lung was the most successful method of confirming the diagnosis in suspected cases.

Two thirds of patients were inoperable when first assessed and resection was successful in only 22 per cent of the patients. The survival rate of the resected group over a five year period was 19 per cent. Radical radiation therapy proved helpful in the initial control of undifferentiated-cell tumors. Palliative radiation therapy had no value in prolonging life, but was much more effective in the relief of symptoms than nitrogen mustard or T.E.M.