Lung carcinoma in patients age younger than 30 years

BACKGROUND, TO the authors' knowledge, no study regarding lung carcinoma pa tients age <30 years has been published. Therefore, this study was undertak en to define the characteristics of lung carcinoma patients age <30 years. METHODS. Information regarding 26 patients with primary lung carcinoma who were age <30 years was obtained from 10 medical institutions and reviewed r etrospectively. For comparison, 304 patients age greater than or equal to 3 0 years who were admitted to the First Department of Internal Medicine at T oyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University between 1980-1996 were studied. RESULTS. Among the characteristics observed in the group of lung carcinoma patients age <30 years was a high incidence of female gender, no history of smoking, so-called "low grade malignancy," American Joint Committee on Can cer Stage I disease, and previous surgical resection. In addition, a low in cidence of squamous cell carcinoma Mras noted, and a more favorable prognos is was observed. CONCLUSIONS. The current study noted clinical features that could be define d clearly in lung carcinoma patients age <30 years. (C) 1999 American Cance r Society.