Complacency in Carcinoma of the Lung

¹ Department of Anatomy, University of Maryland, School of Medicine

Complacency in diagnosis and treatment of carcinoma of the lung is based upon poorly understood statistical evidence. All statistical evidence indicates only 2 to 5 per cent of patients with carcinoma of the lung will survive five years or longer, but the figures are based upon patients when first seen by the thoracic surgeon even though the greatest number of these patients are beyond help by any method of treatment when first seen. The deficiency of early detection and diagnosis must be emphasized. There is a long interval of time when the carcinoma of the lung is not detectable by present methods; effort to study detection of invisible cancer during this period must be accentuated. All methods of detection now available must be utilized efficiently. No lesion of the lung should be allowed to exist unidentified. The medical profession should by careful clinical research and study establish a pretreatment clinical staging classification of carcinoma of the lung. If acceptable and adopted by the responsible medical and surgical associations throughout the world, a pretreatment clinical staging classification could become a method of pinpointing the deficiency in early detection and serve as a basis for recognition or judging the results of various types of treatment. The pretreatment clinical staging classification would permit careful study of groups of patients that are comparable at the time of diagnosis and at the time of treatment. It would in no manner dictate the type of treatment that might be used.