Abstract

The clinical, histological, and biological features of 157 lung cancers in coal miners and ex-miners are presented. In most respects—age, bronchoscopic appearances, histological type, and symptoms —the two groups are similar. A high incidence of dyspnoea in the miners was attributed to the concurrence of chronic bronchopulmonary disease. A striking feature was the lower frequency with which lung cancer in miners was found to be operable. It was suggested that the lower frequency of lung cancer in miners is related to an enhancement of the state of immunological preparedness in the lung related to the immune component in the pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis. The differences in lung cancer between miners and non-miners may be partially explained in this way.