[Lung cancer in adults: Better prognosis of patients aged 45 and under related to good condition and lower TNM stage (a comparative and retrospective study)].
BACKGROUND
Bronchogenic carcinoma (BC) is a worldwide health public problem with a parallel but delayed development to smoking. The prognosis of BC in young patients is poorly known mainly because of few studies that have looked at this group of patients. The hypothesis of our study is that 'young' patients with BC have a better prognosis than others.


METHODS
We conducted a retrospective epidemiologic study of all patients aged 45 and under (n=73) followed for BC between 2002 and 2007 in two hospitals in the central region in France, compared with patients over 45 years random (n=73). We evaluated the clinical characteristics (sex, smoking habits, WHO status, clinical presentation, histology, TNM stage), the management and prognosis of these patients.


RESULTS
The median survival of patients aged 45 and under was 13.4 months against 8.9 months for patients over 45 years. In multivariate analysis, age is not an independent prognostic factor (P=0.41) in contrast to the WHO status (P=0.002) and initial TNM stage (P<0.001). There was no significant difference for other clinical characteristics between the two patient populations.


CONCLUSIONS
In our study, the better prognosis of the "young" patient group is not directly related to age but in good condition and lower TNM stage of these patients.
CHRU de Tours, service de pneumologie et explorations fonctionnelles respiratoires, 37044 Tours cedex, France.
David
D
Marquette
Eric
E
Pichon
Guillaume
G
Deschasse
Bertrand
B
Lemaire
Etienne
E
Lemarie
Patrice
P
Diot
Sylvain
S
Marchand-Adam
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002283:Carcinoma, Bronchogenic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis