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Vol.40 No.7 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Original Article -
Clinical Features of Primary Lung Cancer According to Age
Tetsuya Kojima, Koichi Yamazaki, Yoshihiro Okamoto, Toshiyuki Harada, Osamu Wakabayashi, Satoshi Oizumi, Takashi Ishida, Shigeaki Ogura, Hirotoshi Akita and Yoshikazu KawakamiFirst Department of Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan
Objective: We studied clinical features of primary lung cancer according to age. Study Design: All 755 patients with primary lung cancer who had been admitted to our hospital from January 1983 to December 1998 were divided into 6 groups according to age, ≤40, 41∼50, 51∼60, 61∼70, 71∼80, and 81≤, and were investigated retrospectively. Results: In younger patients with primary lung cancer, adenocarcinoma predominated, while squamous cell carcinoma was more common in the older groups than in the younger groups. This was obvious in males and smokers. However, adenocarcinoma predominated in all groups of females and non-smokers. In patients of the younger groups, lung cancer was detected mainly through symptoms (76%). In patients of the older groups, lung cancer was detected during follow up of other diseases more frequently than in the younger groups (p<0.0001). Patients of the younger groups had more chest pain (p=0.0022) and neurological symptoms (p=0.0004) than patients of the older groups. In addition, the frequency of Stage IV disease was significantly higher in patients of the younger groups than in patients of the older groups (p=0.0003). Patients of the younger groups had brain metastasis more frequently than patients of the older groups (p=0.0008). Patients in the older groups received the best supportive care more frequently than patients in the younger groups (p=0.0003). Conclusion: There were differences in clinical features of primary lung cancer in each generation. It would be useful to understand these characteristics to manage the patients with primary lung cancer.
key words: Primary lung cancer, Age, Adenocarcinoma, Smoking
Received: August 29, 2000
Accepted: October 30, 2000
JJLC 40 (7): 751-757, 2000
