SURGICAL ASPECTS OF BRONCHOGENIC CARCINOMA

Abstract

In the past thirteen years, since Graham¹ performed the first pneumonectomy for carcinoma of the lung, one can safely state that the development of a safe surgical technic for pneumonectomy has far surpassed the clinical advances for the earlier diagnosis of this lesion. Since carcinoma of the lung contributes 10 per cent of all adult male cancers coming to autopsy and is second only to carcinoma of the stomach, it behooves the clinician to bend every effort to diagnose the disease earlier if a successful surgical cure is to be secured. The low surgical mortality of pneumonectomy should be a vital stimulus to all of us to make an early diagnosis of a common disease that can be cured only by surgical extirpation. The actual incidence of the disease is on the increase, according to reliable statistics. The greatest number of cases occur between the ages of 40 and