Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma

General Increase.— There is rather general agreement that the incidence of bronchiogenic carcinoma has greatly increased in the last half-century. Statistical studies at the Charity Hospital of New Orleans (Ochsner and DeBakey),¹the St. Louis City Hospital (Wheeler)²and the Veterans Administration Hospital of Hines, Ill. (Avery)³have revealed that at these hospitals cancer of the lung is now the most frequent visceral cancer in men. Autopsy statistics throughout the world show a great increase in the incidence of bronchiogenic carcinoma in relation to cancer in general. Kenneway and Kenneway,⁴in a careful statistical study of death certificates in England and Wales from 1928 to 1945, have presented undoubted evidence of a great increase in deaths from cancer of the lung. In this country statistics compiled by the American Cancer Society show a similar trend during the past two decades.⁵ Tobacco as a Possible Cause