Screening for occult lung cancer.

A pilot screening program for the early detection of lung cancer was carried out in Saskatchewan in 1968 using chest roentgenography and cytologic examination of sputum samples. The yield from 23 000 men aged 40 years and over was only 10 cases. Nine of the men had advanced disease. One had occult lung cancer. A period of 31 months elapsed between the discovery of malignant cells in this patient's sputum and roentgenographic localization of the tumour. Following pneumonectomy he has survived with no discernible residual or metastatic tumour for 12 years. The morphologic changes in the resected lung provided a basis for discussing the preclinical phase of squamous cancer of the lung, the treatment of occult cancer and multicentric primary pulmonary tumours. The survey would have been more successful with a narrower target group and more frequent examination.