Chest X-Rays for Detection of Lung Cancer.--Value of chest X-ray surveys in detection of lung cancer was questioned recently by the director of such surveys for Philadelphia. Speaking at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Dr. Katharine R. Boucot said that in the light of "dismal" success in surveys in Philadelphia, every effort should be made to develop new techniques to detect lung cancer while the disease is still in its primary stage. Dr. Boucot is professor of preventive medicine and clinical professor of medicine at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Surveys fail to indicate the presence of cancer early enough to be of significant value, Dr. Boucot said. In those cases detected by X-ray in Philadelphia, 70 per cent were inoperable because of the nature and widespread involvement of the cancer. Short-term survival rate of those who were operated on was only 20 per cent. Worse still, the five-year survival rate was only 5.5 per cent.
The two areas in which X-ray surveys may be of value are where the cancer is lying at the outer edges of the lung and where suspicious lung tissue is seen in persons who exhibit none of the symptoms of cancer, she explained.
Dr. Boucot urged that men over 45 without respiratory symptoms should report meticulously for survey films every six months. Any X-ray abnormality in men over 45 should be suspected of representing lung cancer. Even when active tuberculosis has been proven, the possibility of concurrent lung cancer should be considered, she added.
Dr. Boucot described a systematic survey which has been set up in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Pulmonary Neoplasm Research Project's purpose