SUMMARY
In this survey 504 cases of tumour of the urinary bladder have been classified into 365 of papilloma and 139 of early carcinoma, based in the main on the pathologists' diagnosis but also taking into account the surgeons' clinical assessment.
In both groups, that is papillomata and early carcinomata which are confined to the epithelium of the bladder, about 70 per cent, recur after the first treatment, the recurrences behaving often over many years as benign non‐invasive tumours.
In 6 per cent. of cases the original diagnosis of papilloma may have been erroneous, because within two years a frank carcinoma had developed.
In nearly 7 per cent. of cases of papilloma an invasive cancer supervened after an interval of many years.
The death rate from invasive cancer of all cases originally diagnosed as papilloma is 6 per cent. Death occurred at not less than five years and up to sixteen years following the initial diagnosis of papilloma.
The death rate from invasive cancer of all cases originally diagnosed as early carcinoma is 7–9 per cent., death frequently occurring under three years.
Death from invasive cancer occurs earlier in the early carcinoma group than in the papilloma group although in other respects the two groups are similar.
Once a bladder has produced papillary tumours its subsequent behaviour is unpredictable, in that no further tumours may occur or tumours may arise at irregular intervals. The later tumours may be single or multiple, situated in any area and arising at any time. They may be benign or malignant.
Nevertheless all these bladders must be recognised as having the potentiality to produce ultimately a tumour which will become invasive. Until the factors which produce this irregular and unpredictable pattern of tumour activity are discovered, this potentiality should never be under‐estimated.
Vigilance by regular follow‐up cystoscopy and the effective treatment of recurrences undoubtedly helpS to control tumour growth, even though it cannot prevent new tumours from arising.
AN enumeration of new cases of lung cancer (i.e. cancer of the trachea, pleura, lungs or bronchi) diagnosed in 3 hospital centres in Great Britain during the years 1948-1952 was made previously (Bonser and Thomas, 1955). It was noted that more deaths were recorded than cases were diagnosed in the hospitals in two regions-Aberdeen and Leeds City. However, the figures were not strictly comparable, as not all the cases identified clinically in any year would die in the same year, though the overlap would tend to balance over the five-year period. In the Aberdeen region, approximately one-fifth of recorded deaths from lung cancer did not appear in the hospital records; in Leeds City one-tenth. But in the latter area, there was a greater discrepancy between recorded female deaths and female cases diagnosed in hospital, approximately one-third of recorded female deaths not appearing in the hospital records. The reason for this was obscure unless it happened that more deaths from secondary tumours of the lung were included in the female deaths.The present investigation was undertaken in order to obtain more accurate information about the relation between the numbers of recorded deaths from lung cancer and the numbers of cases diagnosed clinically. Leeds is a city of approximately half a million inhabitants, with two large general hospitals.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.