[80 Years of Lung Cancer - the Evolution of Diagnosis and Treatment].

ABSTRACT: Exactly 80 years ago - in April 1946 and in Chicago, the very city where the latest developments in oncology are discussed annually at the ASCO meeting - Thomas Mann, the German Nobel Prize-winning author and chain-smoker, underwent lung surgery. On April 24, 1946, thoracic surgeon Dr. William E. Adams removed the lower and middle lobes of his right lung due to carcinoma at the University of Chicago Hospital; Mann survived the operation without recurrence for nine years before eventually passing away from an aortic aneurysm. What made this surgery remarkable was the limited resection - avoiding the complete removal of the entire lung, which had previously been the only standard treatment for lung carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Since then, treatment options for lung carcinoma have changed significantly. In the following section, we provide a brief overview of how and what has changed.