AGE AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 1433 PATIENTS WITH LUNG-CANCER

A review has been conducted of 1433 patients treated by the Lung Cance r Unit of our hospital to assess the association of age with clinical characteristics of patients with lung cancer. The factors evaluated we re tobacco, stage of disease, treatment and survival of patients treat ed surgically. A comparison was made of patients aged 65 or less with those over 65. There was a similar prevalence of smokers in both age g roups. The stage of disease at time of diagnosis was similar (33% of t he patients aged 65 or less were Stage I or II versus 37% of the older patients). The distribution by histological type showed significant d ifferences (p < 0.05) with a higher percentage of squamous carcinoma i n the younger group (54% versus 44%). Surgery was performed in 30% of the patients aged 65 years or less but only in 19% of the older cases (p < 0.05). Among those patients treated surgically there was no diffe rence in the survival of younger and older patients.