[Treatment of malignant tracheo-bronchial tumors. The lost generation]

250,000 new cases of endobronchial carcinoma are diagnosed each year in France. Risk factors are well known: 80-90% are related to smoking. With an overall 5-year survival rate of only 10%, preventive measures must be our number one priority, especially for young patients, but are their parents a lost generation? Curative therapy has made some progress, particularly with surgery, although only 20% of the patients are potential candidates at diagnosis, and chemotherapy, sometimes in combination with radiotherapy for nonoperable patients. Interesting results have also been achieved with gene therapy where direct intratumoral injection of cytokine genes on recombinant adenoviruses has provided response in certain cases. Interventional bronchoendoscopy provides another promising option as demonstrated by Jeanfaivre and Tuchais who report their results with electrotherapy in this issue of La Presse Médicale.