Relationship of Smoking to Carcinoma

Our plain-English summary of Relationship of Smoking to Carcinoma, by A. Ochsner (1968).

The study

• Author: A. Ochsner
• Published: Chest 54(3):23 September (1968)
• 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 1968 item in Chest was not a research study but discussion remarks drawing on the author's clinical experience and opinion. It did not mention asbestos, and much of the opening text was unreadable. The author questioned another speaker's statement about whether lung cancer patients need to stop smoking. The author said about 6 per cent of these patients could be salvaged and described five who survived over five years. As printed, the author thought these five were the ones who had not stopped smoking and the only patients with a recurrent or new lesion. The author stated that epidermoid carcinoma of the lung is caused by tobacco, largely cigarette smoking, because smokers inhale. The author also said snuff causes cancer, and that cigar, pipe and cigarette tobacco cause cancer of the tongue, lips and larynx, with alcohol an added factor. The author said bladder cancer is higher in tobacco users, citing animal experiments with tar. The author also reported Dr. Oscar Auerbach's statement of never having seen a patient with epidermoid or undifferentiated carcinoma who was not a smoker.

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: Commentary (discussion remarks) based on the author's clinical experience and opinion; not a formal study
• Who was studied: The author's own patients with carcinoma of the lung; the readable text gives no overall numbers, place or period
• Exposure: Tobacco: cigarette smoking, cigar and pipe tobacco, and snuff. Alcohol consumption is named as an added factor. No asbestos exposure is discussed.
• Main results:
  • The author stated that about 6 per cent of patients with carcinoma of the lung can be salvaged
  • The author described five patients who survived longer than five years. As printed, the author thought these were the five who had not stopped smoking and the only patients in whom a recurrent or new lesion developed.
  • The author stated that carcinoma of the lung (epidermoid carcinoma) is caused by tobacco, largely cigarette smoking, and attributed this to cigarette smokers inhaling
  • The author named alcohol consumption as an added factor for carcinoma of the lips, tongue, esophagus and larynx
  • The author stated that bladder cancer is definitely higher in people who use tobacco. The author cited animal experiments in which tar applied to the skin also produced bladder cancer.
  • The author reported Dr. Oscar Auerbach's statement that Auerbach had never seen a patient with epidermoid or undifferentiated carcinoma who was not a smoker
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that it is the carcinogens in tobacco that cause cancer

Topics

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

Browse return to medical research.