Smoking and smoking-related lung cancer in female patients

Smoking is the primary factor responsible for the epidemic of squamous cell lung cancer (SqLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC), however, were have b een few studies which reported the relationship between smoking and SCLC in female patients. To examine the relationship between smoking and SCLC and SqLC in female patients, a retrospective chart review was performed in 877 patients with lung cancer diagnosed at Tsukuba University Hospital. In both SCLC and SqLC, the proportions of non-smokers were higher in female patien ts than those of male patients (p=0.0001, p=0.0001, respectively). A signif icant difference in smoking history was found between female and male patie nts who were diagnosed with SqLC and SCLC (p=0.0001). In female patients, a ctive smoking seems less responsible for the occurrence of smoking-related lung cancer compared with male patients, which suggests passive smoking inf luence the development of smoking-related lung cancer, especially in female patients.