Lung cancer in women: Is it different?

BACKGROUND Lung cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women after breast, colorectal and cervix cancer. Nowadays, lung cancer is the first cause of death due to cancer in women. The differences between sexes are decreasing. The aim of the study was to analyze the differences in frequency, clinical characteristics and survival rates in lung cancer between men and women in our hospital. METHODS A retrospective and descriptive study was performed. All consecutive patients with a primary lung cancer diagnosis presented in the lung cancer committee from September 2011 to October 2013 were included. Variables analyzed included data on clinical presentation, functional parameters, diagnostic test, treatment and prognosis. Variables are described as percentage, mean and standard deviation. The chi-squared and Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare variables. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meyer graphics. A p RESULTS A total of 202 patients were included. Average age was 64.5 years old (+/-10.3), 44 of them were women (21.8%), only 7.9% (16 patients) were never smokers, 19.3% had had a previous cancer and 32.7% of them had a COPD diagnosis. The most common way of presentation was a casual finding (31.7% of all cases) and in the symptomatic group the cough was the most frequent symptom (22.8%). During follow up 85 patients died (42.1%). In the survival analysis there were not significant statistics differences between men and women. CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of lung cancer was 22%. There were no significant differences between men and women according to presentation, clinical characteristics and survival. There were differences in smoking habits, previous neoplasic history and the histologic results.