Clinical Profile of Lung Cancer in Visakhapatnam, India: A Three Year Study

Lung malignancy is the main and utmost type of cancer cases and mortality with raising trends in recent decades particularly in emergent countries like India. Lung malignancy can be suspected when patient presents with clinical symptoms like cough, hemoptysis or incidental abnormality on chest x-ray/ Computed Tomography or by screening with low-dose CT. A retrospective observational study done at Government hospital for chest and communicable diseases under Andhra Medical College, India from Jan 2017 to Dec 2019. Patients diagnosed with bronchogenic carcinoma either inpatient or outpatient were taken into consideration for analysis.   A total of 173 subjects were considered in study for analysis. Mean age found to be 57.67±11.36 years. 121 patients were male and 52 were female. 69.36% patients belonged to rural areas. 82.08% which accounted for 142 patients were smokers. Mean smoking index was 258±246.63. Most common presentation was cough and sob i.e., 83.24%. Most common radiological presentation was mass i.e., 54.3% (94) followed by pleural effusion in 24 cases (13.8%). Adenocarcinoma was observed in 83 patients (48%) followed by squamous cell in 61 patients (35%).  Lung cancer was more common in elderly subjects  with age >50 years with  mean age of presentation in females being  lower than males. Adenocarcinoma was the predominant histological type in both males and females. Smoking still continues to be the main and important risk factor for lung cancer.