The Increasing Menace of Bronchogenic Cancer

Our plain-English summary of The Increasing Menace of Bronchogenic Cancer, by A. Ochsner (1964).

The study

• Author: A. Ochsner
• Published: The New Physician 13(2):29-36 February (1964)
• 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 article does not discuss asbestos. It is a narrative review and commentary by the author on cigarette smoking and bronchogenic (lung) cancer. It draws on national death statistics, published studies by other researchers and the author's own clinical experience. The author wrote of being convinced as early as 1936 that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer, because in the author's early experience all patients with lung carcinoma were heavy cigarette smokers. Later patients who did not smoke had, almost without exception, adenocarcinomas. The article summarized other researchers' studies. One was an American Cancer Society study of somewhat less than 200,000 men aged 50 to 70, followed for about six years, in which the lung cancer death rate rose with the amount smoked. Another was a study of British physicians that gave a lung cancer death rate of 7 per 100,000 in nonsmokers. The author's own investigation found that filters did little or nothing to remove tar. The author concluded that epidermoid and undifferentiated lung carcinomas are almost always caused by tobacco.

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: Narrative review and commentary combining published studies by others, vital statistics and the author's clinical experience; not an asbestos study
• Who was studied: The author's own patients with lung carcinoma (number not given), plus studies and death statistics from other researchers in the United States, Britain, Denmark, Holland and elsewhere
• Exposure: Cigarette smoking and other tobacco use; no asbestos or other fiber exposure is discussed
• Main results:
  • The author was convinced as early as 1936 of a causal relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, because in the author's early experience all patients with lung carcinoma were heavy cigarette smokers
  • In the author's experience, the patients with lung cancer who were not smokers almost always had adenocarcinomas
  • In the American Cancer Society study reported by Hammond and Horn (not the author's study), somewhat less than 200,000 men aged 50 to 70 were interviewed. The death rate increased with the amount smoked.
  • In the Doll and Hill study of British physicians (not the author's study), the lung cancer death rate was 7 per 100,000 in nonsmokers and 166 in those smoking more than 25 cigarettes a day
  • In a study of women by Haenszel and associates (not the author's study), those who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day had a lung cancer incidence 7.1 times greater than nonsmokers
  • Snegireff and Lombard (not the author's study) found that no nonsmoking physician in Massachusetts died of lung cancer
  • The author's own investigation showed that filters did little or nothing to remove tar
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that epidermoid and undifferentiated carcinomas of the lung are almost always caused by the carcinogenic action of tobacco, and that lung cancer other than adenocarcinoma could be prevented by avoiding cigarettes
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated it was not yet known whether higher lung cancer rates in those who began smoking young reflect longer exposure or greater susceptibility

Topics

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

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