ABSTRACT

Clinical records of patients with lung cancer attending a third-level hospital (Centro Hospitalario 20 de Noviembre, ISSSTE, Mexico City) from 1995 to 1999 were reviewed. More than half patients had between 51 and 71 years old. Although men predominated almost 2.5 fold than women in advanced ages, this proportion decreased with younger age, and was similar in both genders among youngest patients. The proportion of smokers in each gender followed this same trend. Symptoms that predominated were malaise, dyspnea and chest pain, and the location of the tumor predominated in upper lobes. Major histological types were adenocarcinoma (60.1%), epidermoid (26.2%) and small cell (13.7%). Although the former two types similarly occurred in smokers and nonsmokers, the small cell carcinoma predominated among nonsmokers.

KEYWORDS

Lung cancer, tobacco habit, bronchogenic carcinoma.

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