Background & Objective

Incidence of lung cancer is increasing globally and most cases are diagnosed in late stages. This study was undertaken to asses various risk factors among the diagnosed cases of lung cancer,find a correlation between various risk factors and specific pathological types of lung cancer andstaging of the lung cancer.

Methods

A retrospective case control study done in IPGMER, Kolkata, India after taking Institutional Ethics Committee approval. 110 lung cancer patients who met inclusion criteria were selected. 110 matched controls were also taken. Patients were evaluated for various risk factors for development of lung cancer. Staging done and specific pathological type ascertained.Normally distributed data compared by “students unpaired t test”. Not normally distributed variables were compared by “Mann Whitney U test”. Categorical variables were compared by Fischer’s Exact Test. p value <0.05 considered statistically significant.

Results

Smoking (p<0.001),Environmental tobacco smoke (p<0.002) and Biomass fuel exposure (p<0.001) were significantly associated with development of lung cancer. Other significant risk factors were arsenic exposure (p 0.002), hypertension (p 0.003) and family history of cancer(p 0.002). No significant association was found with tobacco chewing, alcohol consumption, diegel engine exposure, coal exposure in workplaces, cytotoxic drug intake in early life, past history of tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus with development of lung cancer.

Smoking was associated with squamous cell carcinoma and environmental tobacco smoke with adenocarcinoma. Most cases were diagnosed in stage IV. Females were more diagnosed in late stages compared to males.

Conclusion

Patients with lung cancer still present at an advanced stage with less curative scope. Identification and modification of risk factors is the major strategy of our battle against lung cancer.