Passion, Perseverance, and Quantum Leaps: Lung Cancer in the Twenty-First Century

At the turn of the twentieth century, lung cancer was a rare disease accounting for only 1% of all cancers and found primarily at autopsy. By the 1940s, lung cancer rates had significantly increased. It was the second most common cause of cancer death after gastric cancer, and surgery was the only available treatment. Although a connection between smoking and lung cancer had been recognized by the German physician Fritz Lickint in 1929,1 it was not until the early 1950s, following the publication of 2 landmark studies from the United Kingdom and the United States, that cigarette smoking was identified as an important factor in the development of lung cancer.

Source: Clinics in Chest Medicine - January 31, 2020 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: M. Patricia Rivera, Richard A. Matthay Tags: Preface Source Type: research