Pioneers of Pneumonectomy for Carcinoma of the Lung

Abstract

In the early years of the 20th century, carcinoma of the lung, although quite common in the Western world, had not reached the epidemic proportions of today, where in the United Kingdom it remains the commonest cause of deaths from cancer in both sexes. The cause of this rise can be explained quite easily. At the beginning of the 20th century, tobacco consumption took the form of pipe and cigar smoking, chewing tobacco and inhaling snuff. The tobacco carcinogens produced carcinomas of lip, tongue, mouth and larynx in greater extent than lung. During the First World War of 1914–18, cigarette smoking became common, especially among the armed forces, and this was rapidly followed by the rapid rise in prevalence of lung cancer in the late 1930s.