H. Kunitoh et al., Histologic types of lung carcinoma and related family history of anatomic sites and histologic types of cancers, CANCER, 86(7), 1999, pp. 1182-1188
BACKGROUND, Familial factors are suggested to play roles in lung carcinogen
esis, but may well be different for each histologic cell type.
METHODS. Information regarding smoking, past medical history, and family hi
story of malignant diseases among first-degree relatives was collected from
a total of 1188 patients with primary lung carcinoma (participants) who we
re treated in the thoracic oncology ward at the National Cancer Center Hosp
ital, Tokyo, Japan. These data were analyzed for associations with the hist
ologic type of the lung carcinoma. The main outcome measures were the relat
ive risk of developing a malignancy, at any site or at certain specific sit
es, in first-degree relatives of participants who had a specific histologic
type of lung carcinoma compared with the relative risk in those first-degr
ee relatives of participants with other cell types.
RESULTS. Participants with multiple malignant lesions reported significantl
y more first-degree relatives with a malignancy than those without multiple
tumors (P = 0.008 by the Wilcoxon rank sum test). There was no statistical
ly significant correlation between age, gender, smoking history, or histolo
gic tumor type in the participant and the overall family history of maligna
ncy. Site specific analyses revealed that participants with adenocarcinoma
reported a family history of colorectal carcinoma, and those with squamous
cell carcinoma reported a family history of head and neck carcinoma, more f
requently than other participants (P = 0.041 and 0.001, respectively, by ch
i-square analysis).
CONCLUSIONS. The data from the current study suggest an association between
familiar factors and histologic type of lung carcinoma. Genetic factors to
determine individual susceptibility to lung carcinogenesis should be inves
tigated according to each histologic type. Cancer 1999;88:1182-8. (C) 1999
American Cancer Society.