Frequency of lung cancer diagnosed bronchoscopically in a tertiary care chest facility

ABSTRACT

To evaluate various types of lung malignancies diagnosed through bronchoscopy, and their presentations. This descriptive study was based in a tertiary care chest facility in Peshawar. Duration of the study was from June 2005 - June 2009. The material was obtained from the bronchoscopy record in the chest clinic. All the patients bronchoscoped from June 2005 - June 2009 were studied for their outcome. This study included 425 patients, 306 [72%] were males and 235 [55.3%] of patients were between 31-60 years age. Ninety two [21.6%] patients were diagnosed with lung cancer; of which 73 [79.5%] patients were males and 19 [20.5%] were females. Sixty five [70.7%] of the 92 patients initially presented with shadow on the Chest radiograph, 9 [9.80%] patients had superior vena caval obstruction, 8 [8.70%] patients presented with lung collapse, 6 [6.52%] with haemoptysis, and 4 [4.35%] patients with hoarseness of voice. Forty three [46.7%] patients were diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, 29 [31.5%] with adenocarcinoma, 17 [18.5%] with small cell type carcinoma and 3 [3.30%] patients had large cell type carcinoma. Fifty four [58.7%] patients of the 92 were smokers or had a history of smoking, Anthracosis was found in 45 [10.6%] patients out of all the 425 patients. Commonest type of lung cancer in this study was squamous cell [46.7%] followed by adenocarcinoma [31.5%] and small cell carcinoma [18.5%]. Squamous cell carcinoma was strongly associated with cigerrete smoking as compared to adenocarcinoma in this study