Bronchus

Abstract

The great self-induced cancer of our time, of course, is lung or, more accurately identified in the anatomic sense, bronchial cancer. The link with cigarette smoking is sufficiently certain to regard it as a cause of lung cancer. Interestingly, the incidence of lung cancer in America is not the world’s highest; America lags behind many western European countries in this regard (Waterhouse et al. 1976). At one time lung cancer was essentially a disease of men, with an 8 : 1 male-to-female ratio. However, this is now changing and the incidence of lung cancer is rising sharply in America, probably mostly related to the increasing popularity of cigarette smoking among women in recent decades. It is even possible that at some future time lung cancer will become more common in women than in men, if the present trend of more teenage girls smoking than teenage boys continues and this ratio persists throughout life (Meigs 1977; National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society 1977).