title: Lung cancer in patients under the age of 40 years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In the paper clinical cases of individuals diagnosed with lung cancer below the age of 40 years have been analyzed.
  
  
  METHODS
  THE ANALYSIS INCLUDED: sex, age, clinical symptoms found before and at the moment of diagnosis, character of changes visible in radiological imaging, time that passed from the first symptoms to reporting to a doctor and to establishing a diagnosis, type of diagnostic method used in establishing the final diagnosis, histopathologic type of cancer, degree of cancer progression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results have been compared with a peer group who had been diagnosed 20 years earlier. Currently 7% of patients were diagnosed at the age of 25 or younger, whereas in the previous cohort patients in this age constituted 2%. The predominant pathological type was adenocarcinoma (currently 33%, previously 4%) in contrast to the earlier group in which 57% of patients had small cell lung cancer (57%). The incidence is equally distributed between both sexes, although there is an evident increase in female lung cancer cases. In the majority of patients the clinical presentation is a peripheral mass on chest X-ray. 20% of patients present pleural effusion on diagnosis. Patients reported the following complaints: breathlessness, chest pain, weight loss and fatigue. The majority of cases were diagnosed in advanced stages on the basis of a bronchoscopy acquired specimen. Time course from symptoms to diagnosis tends to be shorter than 20 years ago.
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kozielski
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kaczmarczyk
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Porębska
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szmygin-Milanowska
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gołecki
keywords: diagnosis; lung carcinoma; sex; young patients