Lung Cancer in Women: Analysis of the National Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Database

Objectives In order to further characterize the effect of gender on the clinicopathologic features and survival of patients with lung cancer, and to determine gender-associated differences in temporal trends, we analyzed data that had been entered into a population-based cancer database Patients and methods Data on demographics, stage at diagnosis, histology, initial therapy, and survival were obtained on all patients with primary bronchogenic carcinoma registered in the national Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database from 1975 to 1999 Results Of the 228,572 eligible patients, 35.8% were female. The median age at diagnosis was 66 years for both men and women. However, women accounted for 40.9% of patients who were Conclusion The incidence rate of lung cancer in women in the United States has reached a plateau. However, women are relatively overrepresented among younger patients, raising the question of gender-specific differences in the susceptibility to lung carcinogens. At each stage of the disease, the relative survival of women is better than that of men, with the largest difference noted in patients with local disease