Changes in Bronchial Epithelium in Relation to Cigarette Smoking and in Relation to Lung Cancer

Abstract

IN 1957 two of us (O.A. and A.P.S.), with several collaborators, presented a report of progress on a study of the relative frequency of carcinoma in situ, squamous metaplasia, stratification and basal-cell hyperplasia in the lungs of nonsmokers and light and heavy smokers of cigarettes.1 The study was carried out on the lungs of 117 male patients dying with and without lung cancer by means of step sections of the entire tracheobronchial tree, totaling 208 sections per case. This was done in conformity with a rigidly observed plan, the details of which are fully described in the preceding publication. . . .