Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 289, Issue 7499, 20 May 1967, Pages 1067-1070
The Lancet

ORIGINAL ARTICLES
SURVIVAL IN 6086 CASES OF BRONCHIAL CARCINOMA

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(67)92647-5Get rights and content

Abstract

6086 patients with carcinoma of the bronchus were investigated, particular reference being made to a series of 5140 patients being all those with the disease who attended the Royal Marsden and Brompton hospitals from 1951 to 1963. The five-year survival-rate was 20-35% in patients having a resection and there are a few long-term survivors following irradiation in inoperable cases. The available therapeutic measures for this disease are, however, sadly ineffective, in general, because of its nature and the late stage at which it is usually treated. About two-thirds of the patients seen with bronchial carcinoma die in the first year after attending hospital. The five-year survival-rate in the United Kingdom is probably little more than 5%. The prospects for any striking improvement in methods of treatment or for earlier diagnosis in many cases are not encouraging. Under these circumstances the rising death-rate from this disease calls for a more serious and energetic attempt at prevention than has yet been attempted. The change in smoking-habits that has taken place amongst doctors would seem to have reduced their mortality from this disease at the same time that it has been rising steeply in the general public.

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