Primary lung cancer in a chest clinic: diagnosis and prognosis

This reports a retrospective study of primary cancer of the lung diagnosed in the chest clinics of the Odense and Assens counties in Denmark during the period 1960 to 1966. There were 212 patients, 171 of whom had been referred because of symptoms, and 41 who were found in group screening. Of the latter, 13 had no symptoms. The histologic diagnosis, the diagnostic procedures on which the diagnosis was based, and the treatment are reported. Twenty percent of the patients were alive after five years, as compared with the calculated 13.5 percent for all cancers of the lung in the two counties. A close collaboration between general practitioners, chest clinics, and departments of thoracic surgery is stressed as a means of further improving the prognosis.