ABSTRACT
For the majority of patients suffering from lung cancer despite all efforts during recent decades the prognosis has not been significantly changed. Neither refinement of surgical procedures nor improvement in chemotherapy and radiotherapy or combination thereof in a multi-modality concept could improve the average 5-year survival of approximately 15%.1 This is essentially due to the fact that lung cancer is mostly detected at advanced stages when therapeutic options are limited. As primary prevention by reduced smoking has only very limited effect so far, several attempts at early detection have been performed. Concerning the current knowledge of the natural histoiy of lung cancer there should be a wide window for earlier diagnosis as the stepwise development from early premalignant precursor lesions such as metaplasia, mild and severe dysplasia are taking several years for development to carcinoma in situ and localized early lung cancer.2 In turn these usually take another few years to progress to the advanced stages of lung cancer that we usually see now.
