An epidemiologic study of some characteristics of lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The principal aim of this study was to determine lung cancer distribution according to some epidemiologic and demographic variables in patients diagnosed to have this disease.


METHODS
The study included 1731 patients diagnosed to have lung cancer between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 1999. Data were gathered from the patients' history of disease and from the bronchoscopy Record book. Establishment of significance in analyzed differences between some statistical series was done using Pearson's chi2 test and Kolmogoroff-Smirnoff test (K-S test) for one and two samples.


RESULTS
The majority of male patients (out of a total of 1523 males) were in the age range of 60 to 64 years (21.7%). The age range of 65 to 69 was predominant in the female patients (16.3%). The distribution by sex and age showed significant differences (K-S; p < 0.05). 81.4% of the male patients and 39% of the female patients were smokers. This characteristic was significantly associated with the patients' sex (chi2 = 258.12; DF = 1; p < 0.01). Bronchoscopic localization of the pathological process was not significantly correlated with the habit of cigarette smoking (Kruskal-Wallis chi2 = 1.36; DF = 2; p > 0.05). Pathohistological diagnosis and smoking were significantly correlated (chi2 = 49.37; DF = 2; p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
In the study period, the men fell ill seven times as frequently as the women. The pathological process was most commonly localized in the right and left upper lobes. The predominant histologic type in men was squamous cell carcinoma (SQC), and in women--adenocarcinoma (ADC). Smokers were the greatest number in the patients with SQC and small cell carcinoma. ADC was most common in nonsmokers.
Pavlovska
Irina
I
Institute of Epidemiology and Biostatistics with Medical Informatics, Clinic of Pulmonology and Allergology, Medical Faculty, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
Danilovski
Dragan
D
Orovchanec
Nikola
N
Stefanovski
Tome
T
Taushanova
Bilijana
B
Ivanovska-Zafirova
Beti
B
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D002031:Bulgaria / Q000453:epidemiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric