Cancer of the Lung

Our plain-English summary of Cancer of the Lung, by A. Ochsner (1946).

The study

• Author: A. Ochsner
• Published: Bulletin of the American Cancer Society (?) 27:101-106 (1946)
• 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 short article was a general overview of primary lung cancer by an author from the Department of Surgery at Tulane University. It did not mention asbestos. The author reported that at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, lung cancer was found in 0.47 per cent of autopsy cases in 1931 and 3.2 per cent in 1940. Over the same period stomach cancer stayed at about 2.5 per cent. In a series of 240 lung cancer cases the author had observed, 87 per cent were men and 13 per cent women. The average age was fifty, ranging from twelve to eighty-three. The author wrote that there was no parallel between automobile tag sales and lung cancer, but a distinct parallel between lung cancer and cigarette sales. The author stated a belief that more smoking explained the rise, through chronic irritation. The article also described symptoms, diagnosis by x-ray and bronchoscopy, and treatment by removing the lung and nearby lymph nodes. It gave the operative death rate at that time as between 5 and 10 per cent.

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: General narrative overview article on lung cancer, drawing partly on the author's own case series and on autopsy figures from one hospital
• Who was studied: 240 lung cancer cases observed by the author, plus a group of 90 patients whose lung was removed for primary lung cancer, and autopsy cases at Charity Hospital, New Orleans (1931 and 1940)
• Exposure: Cigarette smoking was the main suspected cause discussed. Tarred-road gases and automobile exhaust were also considered. Asbestos is not mentioned.
• Main results:
  • At Charity Hospital in New Orleans, lung cancer was found in 0.47 per cent of autopsy cases in 1931 and 3.2 per cent in 1940
  • Over the same period, stomach cancer at autopsy varied little and stayed at about 2.5 per cent
  • Of the author's 240 lung cancer cases, 87 per cent were men and 13 per cent women
  • In the 240 cases the average age was fifty years; the oldest patient was eighty-three and the youngest twelve
  • In the 90 patients whose lung was removed, 23 per cent were in the fifth decade of life, 37.8 per cent in the sixth and 21 per cent in the seventh
  • The author reported no parallel between automobile tag sales and lung cancer, but a distinct parallel between lung cancer and cigarette sales
  • The operative death rate after lung removal for lung cancer was given as between 5 and 10 per cent at that time
• The authors' conclusion: The author believed the rise in lung cancer was due to increased smoking, acting through chronic irritation. The author considered the results of removing the lung and regional lymph nodes very satisfactory, given that untreated lung cancer invariably kills.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer, Autopsy, Stomach Cancer, Bronchoscopy.

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