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The Treatment of Carcinoma of the Lung

Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge

This excerpt was created in the absence of an abstract.

I yield to none in my admiration for Mr. Brock, for I regard his work as a great achievement. But partly for this reason and partly because of the deadly nature of the subject which we are discussing I should like to speak quite frankly, and I am sure he will not object. Mr. Brock's figures published recently in the British Medical Journal are as follows:—

Total number of cases seen .. 450

Exploratory thoracotomy possible 65

Found operable .. .. 29 (6 per cent.)

Survived operation .. .. 21

Of the twenty-one who survived operation, fourteen are alive and well, but five of them for a year or less, while only two have survived for three years and only one for over four years. With these results it is surely an exaggeration to say that "of those who survive operation a number will be cured .... and all can expect to continue to earn their living in comfort and without disability". Mr. Brock further states that radiotherapy but rarely prolongs life and may sometimes hasten it. I am sure that a person like Mr. Brock would not make such statements unless he had devoted considerable time to a careful follow-up of a substantial number of cases. What surprises me is that a surgeon as busy as he is should have found the time for the task.