Primary lung cancer in Mexico city: a report of 1019 cases.

A retrospective study was performed in patients diagnosed with primary lung cancer, and admitted to the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias between 1984 to 1992. One thousand and nineteen patients were studied, 636 males and 383 females. We found a higher incidence in the group among 61-70 years of age in both sexes. The highest percentage of tumors were from the adenocarcinoma variety, followed by the epidermoid carcinoma, while the small-cell carcinoma presented a lower incidence. Smoking has been associated with the development of lung cancer. Many of our patients were smokers. The highest frequency was in smokers with a smoking habit of more than 30 years and a rate of more than 10 cigarettes per day. However, an important part of the patients with cancer did not have a smoking habit, which led us to believe that there are other etiological possibility factors (genetic or environmental) that could be involved. Most of the cases of cancer were staged as stage IIIb and stage IV and the patients had an ECOG of 1-2. The main symptoms were coughing, sputum, dyspnea and thoracic pain. This data shows an increasing frequency of lung cancer in Mexico city as well as other countries, it also shows that it is going to be a serious health problem in the future. We consider that in order to improve the prognosis, it is necessary to increase the educational and orientation campaigns among the adult population with or without a smoking history.

Broncoscopia en el diagnóstico del cáncer broncogénico / Broncoscopy in the diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma

Se presentan los resultados obtenidos con el estudio broncoscópico de 637 pacientes con carcinoma broncogénico. Las imagenes broncoscópicas observadas fueron: masa tumoral, estenosis bronquial, hemorragia y mucosa de aspecto normal. El pulmón derecho fue el más afectado con 203 casos, mientras que en el izquierdo se presentaron 11. En la tráquea se encontraron tumoraciones en 31 enfermos. Se señalan los sitios de las vías aéreas donde se localizaron estas alteraciones y su frecuencia. El estudio citológico del lavado y cepillado bronquial mediante broncoscopia evidenció 181 casos con células neoplásicas, cifra que se incrmentó en un 3.4 por ciento en muestras de concentrado de expectoración en líquido de carbowax en los días subsecuentes a la broncoscopia. Se efectuaron 348 biopsias bronquialeas durante el estudio broncoscópico, encontrando que el tipo histológico de cáncer más frecuente correspondió al epidermoide con 165 casos, seguido del adenocarcinoma con 143. Se considera que la fibrobroncoscopia es un método seguro y que debe efectuarse en los pacientes con sospecha clínica de padecer cáncer pulmonar