Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between smoking status and bronchoscopic findings in primary lung cancer. We retrospectively evaluated the clinical files of 1038 primary lung cancer patients diagnosed in our center in 2004. Patients with unknown smoking history or without bronchoscopy were excluded from the study. The study included 716 cases. All patients were divided into four groups according to smoking history. Group 1 included 548 smoker patients. 79 patients were exsmoker for 1-9 years in Group 2. In Group 3, 42 patients were exsmoker at least 10 years or more. Group 4 consisted of 47 nonsmoker patients. The ratio of upper lobe localization in Group 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 53.8%, 45.7%, 52.4%, and 61.7%, respectively. The tumor was localized in main bronchus or lobar bronchus with a ratio of 61.5% in Group 1, 55.7% in Group 2, 64.3% in Group 3, and 34% in Group 4 (p=0.0024). Morphologically, the detection of mass and normal appearance ratios were 58% and 13% in Group 1, 59.5% and 17.7% in Group 2, 59.5% and 9.5% in Group 3, and 38.3% and 40.4% in Group 4 (p=0.0014). The most frequent tumor type was adenocarcinoma in Group 4, squamous carcinoma in others (p<0.001). The results of our study showed that there was a significant association between smoking habit and bronchoscopic findings. Central localization, mass morphology and squamous carcinoma are more frequent features of smoker patients.