ABSTRACT
Digital clubbing occurs in association with various lung diseases including cancer. Clubbing can be a paraneoplastic manifestation of bronchogenic carcinoma. Clubbing was assessed with measurement of the thickness of both base of nail bed [distal-phalangeal depth DPD], and the distal interphalangeal depth [IPD] of the index finger in both lung cancer patients and controls. Of the 97 normal subjects, only one patient had DPD/IPD ratio more than 1.1 on right and left indexes fingers. For lung cancer patients 48.3% had bilateral clubbing with highly significant difference between them and controls [p< 0.001]. Such patients were at high risk to develop lung cancer [OR = 89.8] [p < 0.001]. There was no difference between the prevalence of clubbing and different types of lung cancer. Patients with bilateral clubbing were at risk 8 times more to develop lung cancer. Also, the prevalence of clubbing was independent on the types of lung cancer