Pulmonary carcinoma is the most common visceral neoplasm of man. At our institution it accounts for 10% of all autopsies and 40% of all cancer autopsies.1
The startling increase in incidence in recent decades and the poor results accompanying treatment should cause the medical profession to re-evaluate the problem.
This is a review of 321 histologically proven primary cancers of the lung, excluding malignant adenomas, in an all male population of a Veterans Administration Hospital during the ten-year period from 1952 through 1961.
Age
The age range varied from the third to the ninth decade with the greatest number occurring in the seventh decade. The average age was 59.2 years.
Histologic Type
The anaplastic or undifferentiated type was the most common (49.4%), followed by squamous (36.3%), adenocarcinoma (11.8%), and alveolar (2.5%). We are in complete agreement with Rienhoff who found that types and grade of tumor varied so widely
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