“FEMALE LUNG CANCER; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CASES SEEN IN A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL”

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women with the rate of increase exceeding the rate of increase in men. There are some reports of detailed studies of lung cancer in women in the United States of America and European countries, but few in Japan.Fifty nine cases of lung cancer in women were studied in comparison with 225 cases in men by the hospital records. The ratio of female to male cases was 1:3.8. The major characteristic findings of cases admitted to hospital were as follows.1) The age of the peak incidence of lung cancer in women was appeared to be younger than that in men, and the age distribution in adeno carcinoma was also different between both sexes.2) The incidence of squamous cell carcinoma in women was less than in men though there was no difference in the incidence of other histological types.3) The prognosis of women with lung cancer was consistently better than in men without significant difference in any methods of treatment.4) The relationship between cigarette smoking and the increasing tendency of incidence of lung cancer was not demonstrated. However there was remarkable difference in the histological distribution between smokers and non-smokers.