Abstract

The epidemiology of lung carcinoma has changed during the last century. We investigated the epidemiological changes among patients with lung carcinoma diagnosed in our clinic during the last 30 years. A retrospective study was conducted based on records of 1834 patients diagnosed with lung carcinoma at our clinic between January 1972 and December 2002 in Hacettepe University Hospital. The mean age of 1834 patients with lung carcinoma was 55.12±12.47 at the time of diagnosis, and 1534 (83.6%) were males. The male/female ratio was 5.1/1 (15.3 from 1972 to 1982, and 4.1 from 1993 to 2002). The most common histological type of primary lung carcinoma was epidermoid carcinoma (32.1%). Most commonly diagnosed histological types were epidermoid carcinoma (36.1%) in males and adenocarcinoma (14%) in females. During the periods of 1972-1982 and 1993-2002, the frequency of histological types of primary lung carcinomas were distributed respectively as follows: epidermoid carcinoma (45.4%,26.4%), small cell carcinoma (14.2%, 14.3%), adenocarcinoma (2.7%, 12.8%). The most common location of lung tumors was right upper lobe (14.1%). Carcinoid tumor and metastatic lung tumors were more common in the 18-40 age group versus older patients. The ratio of female patients in 18-40 age group (33.5%) was relatively higher than in the older age group (14.6%). The diagnostic methods were as follows: forceps biopsy (55.8%), percutaneous needle biopsy (16.2%), open lung biopsy (13.1%), transbronchial needle aspiration biopsy (3.9%). In conclusion, the frequency of epidermoid carcinoma has decreased and that of adenocarcinoma and metastatic lung tumors have increased during the recent years. The changes in smoking habits of society as well as the increase in the number of female patients (3.7 times) and better diagnostic approach to peripheral tumors has affected the epidemiology of lung tumors.