Læknablaðið - 01.06.1967, Qupperneq 36

78
LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
carcinoma is on thc increase and a definate correlation is found
with the sale of cigarettes in the country.
The incidence among females is high, there being a male;
female ratio of 2,8:1 from 1931 to 1954, and 1,9:1 from 1955 to
1964 in the whole countrv, but there are twice as many primary
lung carcinomas among females in the urban as in the rural group.
(Urban: rural population 2:3.)
Tlie significance of tliese figures may lie in the fact, that
smoking among females occurs mainly in the urban areas and is
relatively much less cominon in the rural group.
Thoracic Surgery was started in Iceland in 1953 and from
1955 to 1964 a surgical resection was performed on 28,5% of the
patients admitted to the service, or 14,1% of the total number of
patients A\ith lung cancer diagnosed in the country during this
period. Mortalitv rate was 3,2 per cent in the group of explorative
thoracotomies, and 4,2% in the resected series. 22% of tlie resec-
tions were extended pneumonectomies with no mortality.
Average age in the resected series was for males 55,8 years
(ranging from 41 lo 68 years) and females 60,3 years (35—73).
There is a preponderance of oat cell carcinoma (small cell undif-
ferentiated) 33,6% and large cell undifferentiated carcinoma
34,5% in this series.
Epidermoid or squamous cell carcinoma was found in onlv
49,8 per cenl of cases and adenocarcinoma in 7,8%.
Prognosis is most favorable for patients with squamous cell
carcinoma, 48 per cent were resected and 70 per cent of those are
now living and well 2%—7 years later. 37,5% of the entire group
having resections are still living, 21/?—7 years after the operation,
which is a salvage rate of 5,22%.
Heimildir:
1. Dungal, N. (1961): The Lancet, Dec. 16, 1350.
2. Petersen, G. Fr. (1959): Acta Radiolog., Suppl. 188; 200.
3. Thompson, Vernon C. (1965): Clinical Surgery-5, THORAX,
(Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.), 159, 178.
4. Smith, R. Abbey (1964): The journal of Thoracic and Cardiovasc.
Surg. (Vol. 48 No. 3), 428.
5. Thorarinsson, H. (1962): Læknablaðið, 2, 79.
6. Bergh, Nils P. and Scherstén, Tore (1965): Acta Chir. Scandinav.
Suppl. 347; 16, 11, 7.