Gender- and Age-Related Features of Factors Contributing Lung Cancer

INTRODUCTION: The issues of early diagnostics of lung cancer continue to remain an important problem of modern oncology. There are a large number of screening methods for this disease, however, they are economically expensive and not always highly informative. One of the ways to improve diagnosis of lung cancer at early stages is to form a group of high risk, therefore a promising direction is to identify factors contributing lung cancer, especially on a regional scale. AIM: To study peculiarities of regional factors contributing lung cancer depending on gender and age, on an example of the Saratov region. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of 334 patients who underwent outpatient and inpatient treatment for lung cancer in oncological institutions of the city have been analyzed. The following factors were retrospectively assessed: gender, age at diagnosis, body mass index on the first visit to a doctor, relation to smoking with calculation of a smoker’s index, positive heredity for oncological diseases, existence of occupational hazards, history of chronic lung diseases, positive personal oncologic history. For further analysis statistical processing of the data was used. RESULTS: In most cases, the lung cancer was found to be diagnosed starting from 56–60 years. However, in a specific group of patients, primarily with a small-cell cancer and extensive exposure to carcinogens (smoking and occupational hazards), the disease was diagnosed at late stages and at a younger age under 56–60 years in men and 61–65 years in women. In patients under 50 years the highest percentage of late stages compared to older patients was determined. CONCLUSION: The obtained results indicate that further study of these patient populations to identify specific risk factors and a possibility for screening at earlier age periods to improve early-stage diagnosis and treatment outcomes is a promising direction.