Two landmark epidemiologic studies12 published in 1950 are often credited with the discovery that smoking causes lung cancer. The historical origins of the discovery are actually more complex, since neither of these studies provided the first nor the strongest evidence that the observed relationship was causal. Several case reports and case series published since the 1930s had noted that most patients with lung cancer smoked heavily. In 1939, Mueller3 was the first to include a comparison group when reporting more frequent smoking among 86 men with lung cancer than in a control group of men hospitalised for other conditions. Three other case-control studies," also published during the first 9 months of 1950, reported similar findings. However, the papers by Wynder and Graham1 and Doll and Hill,2 published in May and September (respectively) 1950, stood out because of their size, high response rates, and dearly defined categories of smoking. They provided the first real impetus for serious research on the deadly effects of smoking.
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