A STUDY ON LUNG-CANCER, MADRAS, INDIA

Background - The incidence of lung cancer has been steadily increasing in Madras, India, It is the second most common cancer among males and holds tenth rank among females in Madras, Methods - A total of 364 hi stologically confirmed primary lung cancer cases treated at the Instit ute during the period 1978 to 1990 were analyzed to identify whether t here is any difference in the occurrence of histological cell types by smoking status and sex, among younger and older patients at the time of diagnosis of lung cancer, Results - The male-female ratio was 7:1, The age range was 22-78 years with a mean age at diagnosis of 54 years , Younger patients (<45 years of age) had higher frequencies of hemopt ysis, fever and loss of weight compared with older patients (>45 years of age), Higher proportion of adenocarcinomas was seen among females, nonsmokers and younger patients compared with males, smokers and olde r patients respectively, The proportion of SCLC was higher among bidi smokers compared with cigarette smokers in both younger and older grou ps of patients, An about 6-fold risk of developing SCLC compared with AC was seen among older smokers, Conclusions - The observed findings i n this study were consistent with those seen in the high-risk areas In the world.