Mehak Sawhney
BACKGROUND
Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide since 1985, both in terms of incidence and mortality. Globally, lung cancer
is the largest contributor to new cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths.
The aim of the study is to study the clinical, radiological and pathological features of patients diagnosed with lung carcinoma.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This observational and cross-sectional study was conducted at Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS), which is a large
tertiary centre of Uttarakhand on 77 patients of proven lung carcinoma diagnosed over a period of February 2015 to March
2016. The clinical history of the patients was recorded in detail along with the radiological and pathological findings. Ethical
clearance certificate was obtained from the ethical committee.
RESULTS
The study included a total of 77 patients of proven lung carcinoma. Out of the total patients, 70 were males and 7 were females.
Cough was the most common symptom. Smoking was the commonest addiction (89.61%) in the patients. Non-small cell
carcinoma was seen in 59 patients while small cell carcinoma was seen in 23.38% of the cases. Amongst the total patients of
non-small cell carcinoma, the maximum number of patients had squamous cell carcinoma (56%).
CONCLUSION
This study showed that smoking is a principle risk factor in causation of lung carcinoma. Lung cancer should be suspected in an
old person presenting with cough and other symptoms such as malaise, weight loss etc. Squamous cell carcinoma is still the
most common histological type of lung cancer in India.
