Publication

Abstract : Background and objectives: Lung cancer occurs due to the uncontrolled growth of cells in the tissues of the lungs. It can spread to the entire organ through the process of metastasis. This form of cancer remains one of the most fatal diseases across the globe causing high morbidity and mortality rates1 . Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was done on 100 histopathologically proven primary lung malignancies at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Cochin from November 2012 to October 2014. Those patients with definite histological evidence of active extra-pulmonary malignancy were excluded from the study while the inclusion criteria involved patients with a definite histopathological biopsy/cytology and those patients with indirect evidence of bronchogenic carcinoma in the form of positive sputum or pleural fluid cytology or pleural biopsy with CT thorax showing evidence of a lesion consistent with bronchogenic carcinoma. A standardized questionnaire was prepared for collecting data of patients under the inclusive criteria. The details including age, smoking history, chief complaints, radiological calculations, method of diagnosis, histopathological diagnosis and clinical stages were entered in the proforma. The Percentage distributions of case with respect to various clinical variables were computed. Statistical Analysis: This study is mainly about the distribution of lung cancer cases in relation to demographics and clinical variables. The following statistical tests were applied for generating appropriate hypothesis. To test the statistical significance of the difference in mean value between two groups student’s t – test was applied and between three or more groups the analysis of variants was applied. In cases of small sample size for comparing groups, corresponding non parametric tests were applied. To test the statistical significance of the association between various factors with respect to smoking Chi - Square test was applied. The sample size was taken as 100. Results: A total of 100 lung cancer patients were encountered during the study period which included 76 males and 24 females. Most patients were in the age group of 61-70 years. Mean age of study subjects was 65.25 years (SD 9.36). 60% of male subjects had smoking habits whereas the females were non-smokers. Cough was the most common symptom which was present in 85% patients. The physical evaluation revealed clubbing in 53% and effusion in 31% of the subjects. The frequent radiological finding was mass lesion (65%). The right upper lobe was the most affected area which included 26% of the subjects. Histopathologically, 90 were non-small cell lung carcinomas and 10 were small cell lung carcinomas. Trans-thoracic biopsy was the main mode of diagnosis in 48 % of the subjects. Approximately 64% of the patients were at stage IV at the time of diagnosis. Conclusion: The study has revealed that most cases of lung cancer occur in the elderly population aged 60 years or more. Adenocarcinoma is the prevalent histological subtype in this study. Most of the patients were at the advanced stage when diagnosed. Prevalence of smoking habit was 60% in the study.