The Treatment of Carcinoma of the Bronchus Review article

“We have before us a wide and almost appalling sphere for our exertions, humbling us by the present aspect of the extent to which this disease is rife. Instead of decreasing as a result of advancing science death by cancer has increased alarmingly.” These words are as apposite to-day as they were when Dr. William Marsden made his report at the end of the first year's work at the Free Cancer Hospital which he had founded in 1851. Since this time our understanding of malignant disease has been greatly enhanced by observation and investigation, but the control of cancer is still only a hope for the future. There is a steady annual increase in the number of patients dying from the disease and this increase is most marked in the case of lung cancer. Until this disease can be controlled, either through prophylactic measures or by improved chemotherapeutic agents, or by some method as yet undiscovered, treatment will continue to be either by the surgical removal of involved structures or by the ablation of malignant tissues by radiotherapeutic methods. At the present stage of our knowledge, the treatment which seems to hold the best chance of a cure in carcinoma of the bronchus is surgery, but only a small proportion of patients presenting with the disease are suitable for either pneumonectomy or lobectomy.