Epidemiological and Pathological Study of Lung Cancer in Patients Referred to Ekbatan and Shahid Beheshti Hospitals in Hamadan during 2001 - 2016

Background and Objective: Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and the main reason of cancer-caused mortality in Iran. The awareness of cancer epidemiologic and pathologic characteristics helps to prevent the prevalence and incidence of cancer. Materials and Methods: This comparative descriptive study was conducted on patients with lung cancer referring to Ekbatan and Shahid Beheshti Hospitals during 2001-2016. Risk factors as well as clinical and demographic data were collected from medical records. Results: The mean age of the patients was 61.11 ±12.23 years and 166 patients (83%) were male. A total number of 120 (66.7%) patients lived in urban areas. The frequency of patients who had a positive history for consumption of opioid, industrial drugs, cigarette, and hookah were 2%, 0%, 42.2%, and 1%, respectively. The most common symptoms were cough and dyspnea. The time interval between the appearance of clinical signs and diagnosis was 5.32 months. The most common paraneoplastic symptom was bone pain (45.5%), and the most frequent pathologic form was squamous cell carcinoma (33.5%). The right upper lobe (27.5%) and left upper lobe (23.5%) were the most common lobes. Conclusion: Since the time interval between clinical signs and diagnosis was long and squamous cell carcinoma was the most common type of cancer, it is important to control risk factors, specifically smoking, to prevent cancer.