Bronchial Epithelium in Former Smokers

Our plain-English summary of Bronchial Epithelium in Former Smokers, by O. Auerbach, A.P. Stout, E.C. Hammond, et al (1962).

The study

• Authors: O. Auerbach, A.P. Stout, E.C. Hammond, L. Garfinkel
• Published: New England Journal of Medicine Volume 267, No. 3, July1 19, 1962
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This study examined the airway lining of 216 men who died of causes other than lung cancer. It is a study of tobacco smoke, not asbestos. They were 72 former cigarette smokers, 72 men who smoked regularly until their final illness, and 72 never-smokers. They were grouped in matched sets of three, matched for occupation and residence history. Smoking histories came from family interviews. Slides were randomized and read by serial number. Lesions of one or more types were found in 97.8 per cent of sections from current smokers and 66.6 per cent from former smokers. Cells with atypical nuclei appeared in 6.0 per cent of sections from former smokers. All 72 current smokers had many sections with such cells, and such cells were found in 19 of the 72 never-smokers. Cells with disintegrating nuclei were found only in former smokers, 43 of the 72. The authors concluded that atypical cells appear to decrease progressively in former smokers, depending on the years between stopping and death. The partly damaged text indicates that the level usually stays above that in never-smokers.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Study of airway tissue from men who had died. It compared matched sets of three: current cigarette smokers, former cigarette smokers and never-smokers. Slides were randomized and read without knowledge of whose tissue they came from.
• Who was studied: 216 men: 72 former cigarette smokers, 72 current cigarette smokers and 72 men who never smoked. None of them had lung cancer. They were one set within a study of 758 subjects, drawn from 1522 white adults who died of causes other than lung cancer. Smoking, occupation and residence histories came from family interviews.
• Exposure: Cigarette smoking in three groups: regular smoking up to the final illness, former smoking, and never smoking. Former and current smokers were also matched on cigarettes smoked per day. No asbestos exposure is studied.
• Main results:
  • Epithelial lesions of one or more types were found in 97.8 per cent of sections from current cigarette smokers and in 66.6 per cent of sections from ex-cigarette smokers. The figure for nonsmokers is unreadable in the text.
  • In a partly damaged passage, the authors report that epithelial lesions were most frequent in current smokers and least frequent in nonsmokers, with the findings in ex-cigarette smokers falling in between.
  • Cells with atypical nuclei were found in 6.0 per cent of sections from ex-cigarette smokers.
  • All 72 current cigarette smokers had many sections containing cells with atypical nuclei.
  • Cells with atypical nuclei were found in 19 of the 72 nonsmokers.
  • Cells with disintegrating nuclei were found only in ex-cigarette smokers: 43 of the 72 former smokers had them.
  • Cells with disintegrating nuclei and cells with atypical nuclei were very rarely found in the same slide.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the number of cells with atypical nuclei appears to decrease progressively in the bronchial lining of ex-cigarette smokers. They say this depends on the number of years between stopping smoking and death. The partly garbled remainder of the sentence indicates that the level usually stays above that found in nonsmokers.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Epithelium, Lung Cancer.

Browse return to medical research.