A clinical study was made on 72 cases of primary lung cancer operated in the department of thoracic & cardiovascular surgery, Kyungpook national university hospital from January 1975 to May 1985. The ratio of male to female was 13.4: I and mean age was 53. Histologically, squamous cell carcinoma comprised 72.2% of 72 operated cases. Before admission to our hospital, the erroneous diagnoses were made at local clinics on the 43 cases[59.7%] and a large percentage of them was diagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis. And then, total of 56 cases received inadequate treatment or delayed the operation. For the location of the tumor, right to left ratio is 1.2:1 and the right upper lobe was most often involved [23.6%]. Operation was performed on the 72 cases and resection on the 59 cases[8.2%]. Postsurgical staging showed that stage III was found most frequently [59.4%] and T,N,M, was 28% of total cases. Two common surgical complications were bleeding in 7 and acute respiratory failure in 6 cases, and these 6 cases of acute respiratory failure were all died. On the basis of these experiences, we conclude that aggressive effort is needed for the early accurate diagnosis and adequate treatment of lung cancer.