Lung Cancer: Surgery and Survival

Abstract

Written in a pleasing and readable style often rare today, this short work was originally presented as a Hunterian lecture in the Royal College of Surgeons, London, Oct 4, 1951, and was later expanded. Although the author refers to the classic work of Rouviere and of Cordier on pulmonary lymphatic drainage, this book is really a contemporary study of the patterns of lymph node metastasis in 200 personal resections for bronchial carcinoma carried out between 1941 and 1950. Unique in cancer surveys is the fact that follow-up information was available on all patients. While lobectomy for carcinoma of the lung is often desirable in patients with poor ventilatory function, the author emphasizes that it is frequently not actually feasible even as a palliative procedure because of tumor invasion of the intrapulmonary lymph nodes. The small size of a peripheral neoplasm is no guarantee that it is benign, nor that it