Surgical treatment of carcinoma of the lung: Evaluation of six hundred ninety-nine cases from 1933 through 1956

Factors influencing the prognosis of pulmonary carcinoma have been studied in a series of 699 patients, all of whom had been considered operable, had undergone thoracotomy, and were proved histologically to have carcinoma. Lobectomy was performed in 46 cases and total pneumonectomy in 203, in the remaining 450, operation disclosed surgically irremediable conditions. The proportion of remediable to irremediable cases has remained constant in this series through the years, but there has been an increase in the incidence of undifferentiated tumors beginning in the parenchyma of the peripheral portions of the lungs. The age and sex of the patient did not affect the prognosis, and the severity or duration of symptoms seemed not to have the slightest bearing on the outcome. Occasional instances of complete cure and long survival justify the belief that all pulmonary neoplasms, benign as well as malignant, should be removed at the earliest possible moment after the lesion is discovered in the roentgenogram. Copyright, 1958, By American Medical Association.