The Effect of Smoking, Gender and Histological Type of Cancer on Body Mass Index in Lung Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective — This study aimed to investigate the association of smoking status, gender, cancer histological subtype and stage with body mass index (BMI) in patients with lung cancer. Methods — Our cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 patients with histologically confirmed lung cancer at Tishreen University Hospital, Lattakia, Syria, between January and December 2023. Demographic data, smoking status, cancer histological subtype and stage were collected from medical records. BMI was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m²). Comparisons were performed using independent t-test, chi-squared test, and one-way ANOVA with post hoc analysis. Two-way ANOVA tested for interaction effects, while multivariate linear regression adjusted for age and gender identified independent predictors of BMI. Results — The mean age was 60.4±9.6 years; 300 patients (75%) were men and 100 were women (25%). The mean BMI was 20.0±4.3. Men and smokers had significantly lower BMI values than women and nonsmokers (p