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A clinical study was made on 171 cases of bron-chogenic carcinoma seen at the Kyungpook National University Hospital from January 1965 to December 1974. The male to female ratio of the patients was 5.1 : 1 and over 90 percent of the cases , were beyond the age of 40 years, the average being 53.9. Epidermoid carcinoma accounted for 59.6 per cent undifferentiated 29.8 per cent and adenocrcinoma 10.5 percent. Approximately 80 per cent of the patients were smokers, about 80 per cent of whom being moderate to heavy smokers. The morbidity was even higher among smokers of longer duration, most of whom belonging to the older age group. Cardinal respiratory symptoms in the order of frequency were cough, sputum, chest pain, dyspnea, hoarseness and wheezing. Major constitutional symptoms in the order of frequency were weakness, anorexia, weight loss and fever. All the cases with hoarseness had lesions in the left lung, wherereas 10 out of 12 cases with superior vena caval syndrome had right-sided lesions. The first method yielding the histological proof of the disease was, the biopsy of the lymph nodes in 56.1 per cent of the cases. Abnormal bronchos-copic findings were noted in 78.9% of the patients examined and the major abnormalities observed, in the order of frequency, were bronchial stenosis, tumor masses and widening of the carina. Tissue specimens were obtainable by means of the bronchoscopic biopsy in 71.9 per cent of the cases and 66. 7 percent of the specimens provided histological diagnosis. The most common roentgenological abnormality was tumor thass being noted in 57.3 per cent of the cases. The remaining cardinal abnormalities were findings consistent with pleural effusion, ate lectasis, tuberculosis, pneumonia and lung abscess in the order of frequency. The lesion was found .in the right lung in about 60 per cent of the cases .and was most common in the right upper lung field. The time lapse between the onset of the initial symptom and the definitive diagnosis was less than three months in 30. 4 per cent of the cases and more than six months in 46.8 per cent. Tentative diagnoses noses made at local clinics prior to the admission to our institution were tuberculosis in 26.3 percent followed by bronchogenic carcinoma, pleurisy, pneumonia etc in the order of frequency. Bronchogenic carcinoma accounted for 0. 73 per cent of the total admissions during the same period .of time at our institution. It was the third most common malignancyy in the male following carcinomas of the liver and the stomach in : that order, and was the sixth in the female following carcino ; mass of the genitals, the stomach and the liver, leukemia and the breast cancer.
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