Four decades of experience with resections for bronchogenic carcinoma at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Experience at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) with resections for primary lung carcinoma is brought up to the clinical staging era (1971) with a 5 year cumulative survival statistic of 30 percent for the period 1964 through 1970. Comparison of four decades of experience reveals no change in cumulative survival for pulmomary resections for primary lung carcinoma in the years 1941 through 1970. Attention is directed to the hospital mortality rates for pneumonectomy and lobectomy and to the principal causes for these rates. Lymph node metastasis continues to be the single most ominous predictor of potential survival after pulmonary resection for carcinoma, particularly for all non-squamous cell types.