BACKGROUND@#
Lung cancer is a leading cause of
morbidity and
mortality worldwide, and the
incidence continues to rise. Although many
prognostic factors have been identified, the clinical characteristics and outcomes in Korean
lung cancer patients are not well defined.@*
METHODS @#Of the 23,254 new
lung cancer cases registered at the
Korea Central
Cancer Registry in 2013, total 489
patients from 19
hospitals were abstracted by the Korean Central
Cancer Registry . The clinical data retrospectively analyzed,
patients were followed up until December 2015.@*RESULTS@#The median age was 69 years (interquartile range, 60–74 years); 65.4% were
male and 62.1% were ever-
smokers .
Cough was the most common initial symptom (33.5%); 13.1% of
patients were asymptomatic. While
squamous cell carcinoma was the most common subtype in
male patients (37.2%),
adenocarcinoma was the most frequent histological type in all
patients (48.7%) and
females (76.3%). The majority of
patients received
treatment (76.5%), which included
surgery ,
radiation therapy , and
chemotherapy . Older age (
hazard ratio [HR], 1.037), lower
body mass index (HR, 0.904), ever-
smoker (HR, 2.003),
small cell lung cancer (HR, 1.627), and distant
metastasis (HR, 3.990) were independent predictors of
mortality .
Patients without symptoms (HR, 0.387) and without
treatment (HR, 0.364) were associated with a favorable outcome in multivariate Cox
analysis .@*CONCLUSION@#
Lung cancer in
Korea occurs predominantly in
elderly patients , with
adenocarcinoma being the most frequent subtype. The
prognosis was poorer in ever-
smokers and older, malnourished, and untreated
patients with advanced
lung cancer .