| Abstrakt: |
A group of 443 patients with histologically proved bronchiogenic carcinoma, not treated surgically, was studied with respect to several factors which may have a bearing on duration of life. The following were the pertinent findings: 1)Of the 443 patients, 373 (84.2 per cent) died within two years of the onset of striking symptoms. The remaining 70 (15.8 per cent) lived from two as long as seven-and-a-half years. This group included 18 who lived three to five years and seven who lived five years or longer. The history is cited of one patient (not included in the statistics) who lived more than 17 years from the time the diagnosis of carcinoma was made.2)Histological study of material of 320 patients examined at autopsy showed that the type of tumor has an important bearing on duration of life. Patients with epidermoid carcinoma lived the longest; those with anaplastic carcinoma, the shortest; those with adenocarcinoma occupied an intermediate position.3)As a clinical corollary of this study, as well as on the basis of an analysis of the results of surgical treatment reported from 10 large centers of the United States and the Continent, it is concluded that resectional surgery should be restricted to patients in good physical condition in whom the disease is discovered in a relatively early stage. Surgery, we believe, is contraindicated in patients with advanced bronchiogenic carcinoma because of the considerable operative risk and the discouragingly poor results. Certainly, such patients should not be subjected to operation on the principle that nothing is lost by the attempt since death is a matter of a few months in any event. Our study reveals an appreciable number of patients with bronchiogenic carcinoma who lived two years or longer without surgery. |
