Primary lung cancer in patients below the age of 40 years in upper Egypt

ABSTRACT

Thirty-two patients aged from 18 to 39 years were managed for bronchogenic carcinoma in Menia and Assiut University Hospitals in the period from July 1988 to December 1993. All patients were symptomatic at time of diagnosis. Initial clinical examination, radiologic features and bronchoscopic findings that indicated advanced disease tumor were found in 27 patients. Yielded positive results of exfoliative cytology were low [sputum 13%, bronchial wash 28% and pleural fluid 9%]. Adenocarcinoma was found in 46.8% of the patients, small cell carcinoma in 28.1%, alveolar cell carcinoma in 9.4%, mixed adenosquamous and large cell carcinomas in 6.3% for each and lastly, squamous cell carcinoma in 3.1%. According to TNM definition in new international staging for lung cancer [1986], none had stage II or IIIa, but nine patients had stage IIIb and twenty-two had stage IV, while one patient only had stage I tumor disease. Resectability rate was 3%