OUTCOME OF PATIENTS WITH LUNG-CANCER DETECTED BY MASS-SCREENING VERSUS PRESENTATION WITH SYMPTOMS

Lung cancers in the early stages are frequently detected via mass scre ening in Japan. The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcome of pa tients with lung cancer detected via mass screening and to compare the m to those in whom the malignancy was detected by symptoms. A total of 774 untreated patients with lung cancer who were admitted to Departme nt of Respiratory Medicine, Tsukuba University Hospital over a 20 year period up to 1995, were analyzed with reference to their reasons for detection of the cancer. In the mass screened group(116 patients), 50. 0% of lung cancel was detected at stage I of TNM classification while only 8.2% of patients with symptoms(561 patients) had stage I lung can cel (p=0.0001). As lung cancels detected via mass screening were more often at operable stage (stage I, II or IIIA) (p=0.0001), surgical tre atment was chosen more frequently in the mass screened group (p=0.0001 ). The outcome of patients with lung cancer detected via mass screenin g was move favorable than that of the patients detected by their sympt oms (p=0.0002). The early detection of lung cancel via mass screening contributes to improvement of the outcome.