Symptoms and Survival in Lung Cancer.

Abstract

From the analysis of 167 patients with lung cancer operated by radical resection at the National Cancer Institute of Milan and from the review of the literature, the authors reach the following conclusions: a) Prognosis of lung cancer is related to symptoms. Prognosis is better in asymptomatic patients and in those with long-term primary symptoms than in patients with short-term symptoms, or with clinical signs of mediastinal involvement or metastases. Symptomatologic classification is therefore useful also in a pretherapeutic phase. b) Although in asymptomatic patients there are better chances of cure, mass screening in asymptomatic people may be unsuccessful because of the limited number of asymptomatic cancers and the limits in radiographic diagnosis. This latter, in fact, even if rouled out in a preclinical phase, is not early. c) We need new epidemiological trends to improve both the effectiveness of mass screening and therapy in asymptomatic people.