Lung cancer in patients younger than 40 years of age.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of lung cancer in younger patients differ from those of older patients.


METHODS
Among 2,763 lung cancer patients treated during the period from April of 1972 to April of 1997, we retrospectively investigated the clinical features and prognosis of 53 patients under 40 years of age (young group) and compared them with the findings of 1,886 patients with 60 years of age or older (elderly group).


RESULTS
The proportion of female patients in the younger group was significantly higher than that in the elderly group (39.6% vs. 24.1%). The young group had a significantly higher proportion of adenocarcinoma (75.5% vs. 44.8%) and stage III-IV disease (73.6% vs. 59.2%) and a significantly lower proportion of squamous cell carcinoma (3.8% vs. 32.1%). Regarding the selection of therapy, in the young group, a significantly lower proportion of patients underwent surgical therapy (35.8% vs. 41.5%) and a significantly higher proportion of those (37.7% vs. 16.4%) received chemotherapy. The overall survival between the young and elderly groups was not significantly different. Moreover, the 5-year survival rate of the patients undergoing a surgical resection was 56.1% in the young group and 44.8% in the elderly group (P = 0.0615).


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that the prognosis of young patients with lung cancer is at least equivalent to that of older patients; therefore, they should be managed according to the general therapeutic guidelines.
Maruyama
R
R
Department of Chest Surgery, National Kyushu Cancer Center, Notame, Minami-ku, Fukuoka, Japan.
Yoshino
I
I
Yohena
T
T
Uehara
T
T
Kanematsu
T
T
Kitajima
M
M
Teruya
T
T
Ichinose
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents