Medisan (Dec 2023)
Characterization of patients with lung cancer in a pneumology service
Abstract
Introduction: Lung cancer is a public health problem worldwide and Cuba is not exempt from it. Objective: Characterize patients diagnosed with lung cancer according to clinical, epidemiological and morphological variables. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and retrospective study was carried out on 145 adults diagnosed with lung cancer in the Pneumology Service of Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso Teaching General Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, from January, 2018 to December, 2019. For this purpose, in the statistical processing, the percentage and mean were used as summary measures for qualitative and quantitative variables, respectively; Likewise, there were applied the kappa coefficient to establish the degree of agreement between data and the Χ2 independence test to identify a significant association between the selected criteria of interest (with p<0.05). Results: There was a predominance of the male sex (62.1%) and the age group of 65-75 years (37.9%). Regarding the histological type, squamous cell carcinoma was more common (42.7%). The right lung was the most affected, specifically its upper lobe (33.8%); also, there were morphological alterations, such as bronchial infiltration (100.0%), mucosal irregularity and edema (with 98.5% in each case), and inflammation with bronchial wall thickening (90.3%). Conclusions: The determination of the clinical, epidemiological and morphological characteristics related to lung cancer makes it possible to carry out the correct follow-up of the patients and apply an appropriate therapeutic protocol.
