Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (Oct 2018)

Changing Trend of Clinical and Epidemiological Profile of Lung Cancer – Experience from a Tertiary Care Centre in Southern India

  • Manoj Kumar Panigrahi,
  • Vinod Kumar Saka,
  • Venugopal Jaganathan,
  • Mathanraj Sinnassamy,
  • Narendra Kumar Narahari

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2018/36768.12148
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 10
pp. LC01 – LC03

Abstract

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Introduction: There has been a renewed interest in lung cancer epidemiology owing to changing trend in histology with a relative increase in adenocarcinoma worldwide. However, such a trend was not observed across India over the last six decades. Aim: To assess the demographic profile, smoking status, histological types/patterns and stage of lung cancer among patients visiting a tertiary care centre/hospital in south India. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of two years including patients with cytohistological confirmation of lung cancer. Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) was staged as per 7th edition of TNM classification and Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) as either limited or extensive disease. Results: A total of 125 patients {115 (92%) NSCLC, 10 (8%) SCLC} were diagnosed with lung cancer. Mean age of presentation was 55±9.62. Seven (5.6%) patients were ≤40 years. Ninety-five (76%) were male. Overall 71 patients (57.72%) were smokers. Cough in 110 (88%), dyspnea in 92 (73.6%) and chest pain in 63 (50.4%) were the predominant symptoms among patients. Most common histological type was adenocarcinoma in 67 patients (53.6%) followed by squamous cell 39 patients (31.2%), small cell carcinoma 10 patients (8%), undifferentiated 7 patients (5.6%) and large cell carcinoma 2 patients (1.6 %). Majority of NSCLC patients 70 patients (61%) presented with stage IV disease followed by IIIB (17.4%), IIIA (12.2%), IIB (6%) and IIA (3.4%). Nine out of ten with SCLC had extensive disease. Most non-smokers (73%) had adenocarcinoma where as equal proportions (41%) of smokers had squamous cell and adenocarcinoma each. Adenocarcinoma was five times more common in females than males and squamous cell carcinoma was 3.8 times more common than adenocarcinoma in smokers. Conclusion: Adenocarcinoma was found as the commonest type of lung cancer in southern Indian population with a trend of diminishing male-female ratio.

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