Until ''scientific proof" is delivered, lung cancer authority Dr. John A. Schenken of Omaha, Neb., isn't going to be sold on the idea that tobacco is the major cause of the disease.
He expressed his doubts Saturday at a one-day physicians' seminar on lung cancer, sponsored by the Louisiana Thoracic Society at the Louisiana State University MeSical School.
"So far, what we have had is statistics," he said. "And that is not scientific proof.
"I'll show you some statistics. The British, according to statistics, smoke only one-half as much as Americans, yet they have twice as much incidence of lung cancer.
"And the American suburbanite and the fellow in the country smoke statistically the same, yet the incidence of lung cancer is greater in the city. On it goes . . ."
OTHERS DISAGREE
However, the general concensus at the meeting was that tobacco is the major cause — though certainly not the only one — of lung cancer.
Dr. Donald L. Paulson of Dallas, Tex., said that statistics show that the chance of a smoker developing cancer is 50 times greater than a non-smoker. Once a smoker, Dr. Paulson said he had quit "several years ago."
Other causes of lung cancer, Dr. Paulson pointed out, often are heredity or air pollution. "Here's a person I would consider in double jeporardy—one whose father died of lung cancer and who also smoked," said Dr. Paulson.
Dr. Paulson pointed out that pre - surgical irradiation has been of value in certain types of lung cancer. The irradiation is followed by an operation about a month later.
STRESSES CAUSE
He described a method of treatment with cobalt or "super voltage" irradiation, then surgery to remove the affected area, then more irradiation treatment.
The method has been used on localized carcinomas (lung cancers that have not extended into a system that will carry cancerous cells to other parts of the body). Dr. Paulson said the method has proved successful in a number of cases.
Dr. Schenken asked that more concentration should be on the cause, of cancer rather than on its cure. He called results obtained* through the present methods of treatment "discouraging."
The Nebraska doctor squashed a theory that cancers which remain inactive for five years are cured. "There is no such thing as a five-year cure," he said.
OCHSNER EMPHATIC
However, he added that surgery and irradiation treatment have shown some good results.
Dr. Clay A. Waggenspack,
president of the Louisiana~"TC-berculosis Society, parent organization of the Louisiana Thoracic Society, was pleased with the seminar. "There's no doubt in my mind," said Dr. Waggenspack, "that there is more cancer in those who smoke, yet the point made by my old teacher, Dr. Schenken, is valid. ... All that has been presented is statistical proof."
The afternoon panel moderator, Dr. Alton Ochsner, a leading crusader against tobacco, was considerably more emphatic.
Asked what had been decided at the meeting, Dr. Ochner said, "It has been definitely established that anyone smoking should stop."
Dr. John S. LaDue of New York, associate professor of clinical medicine at the Cornell University Medical College delivered a paper, "The Symptomatology and Diagnosis of Lung Cancer."
