Carcinoma of the Lung: A Review of the Five-year Survivals Over a 15-Year Period

Review of carcinoma of the lung in a large Charity General Hospital over a 15-year period reveals an extremely low operability and resectability rate. This is largely due to the fact that many patients are admitted in the late stages of the disease and obviously surgical extirpation is contraindicated for many reasons. Two hundred and sixty-three cases were submitted to thoracotomy; resection was performed in 184 cases. Of these, there were 74 five-year or more survivors. An additional case survived more than five years after having refused surgery, making a total of 75 cases. Age groups, sex and race were similar to previously reported studies. Of interest was the fact that 45 cases are alive at the time of this study. Twenty cases survived ten or more years, four are dead at the time of this study, having died of other causes. Location of the lesion and cell types definitely influence survival; however, lymph node involvement did not seem to alter the survival data one way or another. Vascular invasion was not studied suficiently to warrant including it as a factor in survival.