Lung cancer. Symptoms, signs and diagnostic criteria.

A consecutive hospital series of 1 053 patients treated for lung cancer during the period 1962 through 1971 has been studied. Clinical symptoms were present more often in men than in women and in 42% symptoms had been noted more than 6 months prior to the diagnosis. Peripheral tumours gave less symptoms than central ones. Although in 22% of the patients the tumour was discovered on a chest film in the absence of relevant symptoms, 12% only had been detected by regular mass X-ray screening. More than 40% of the peripherally located tumours were clinically silent. Squamous cell and anaplastic small cell cancers were predominantly centrally located (80 and 90%, respectively) against 65% and 74% for adenocarcinomas and undifferentiated large cell tumours.