Korean J Med.
2011 Apr;80(4):427-433.
Clinical Features of Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in Never-Smokers
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Kosin University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea. jangtw@ns.kosinmed.or.kr
Abstract
- BACKGROUND/AIMS
Smoking is major cause of lung cancer. However, the prevalence of lung cancer in never-smokers increasing recently. This study investigated the clinical characteristics of advanced lung cancer in never-smokers.
METHODS
We anlyzed the clinical characteristics including demographics, bronchoscopic features, stage, and serum tumor markers, of never smokers with lung cancer seen at Kosin University Hospital from January 2001 to December 2008.
RESULTS
There were 105 never smokers with lung cancer (mean age 61 years, 82 females), comprising 83 (79%) adenocarcinomas, 9 (8.6%) squamous carcinomas, and 13 (12.4%) undifferenciated carcinomas. The overall median survival time (MST) was 18.7 months. The MST was longer in females (21.6 vs. 13.7 months, p = 0.03), patients younger than 60 years (19.2 vs. 17.5 , p = 0.019), and those with adenocarcinoma (21.6 vs. 8.8 months, p = 0.038), and a neuron-specific enolase level of less than 15 ng/mL (22.4 vs. 13.4 months, p = 0.014).
CONCLUSIONS
We analyzed the clinical characteristics of advanced lung cancer in never smokers. A more comprehensive study is need to compare never-smokers and smokers with lung cancer and to determine the appropriate treatment for non-smokers.
