Aspects of lung cancer in Jamaica.

Abstract

The incidence of lung cancer in the approximately one-half million population living in the parish of Kingston and St. Andrew of Jamaica—a tropical developing country—has been investigated for the years 1958–1970 inclusive. When compared—on an age-standardized basis—with figures published from other areas, Jamaica's figures appear to be substantially above those from Africa, but much lower than those from Britain and the United States (Table 12). The incidence appears to be rising both in males and females (Fig. 1, Table 12). Clinical and pathologic data on 105 cases of lung cancer were obtained through the postmortem and surgical pathology services of the University Hospital of the West Indies, a 500-bed general hospital. The three main histologic types were equally represented at postmortem, but the squamous carcinoma type was more frequently seen in the surgical pathology material. The patients had an inadequate follow-up and were small in number; the data, therefore, did not allow an evaluation of the use of the W.H.O. histologic classification as to its prognostic significance. The duration of symptoms from onset to death or operation was generally less than 6 months.