Former smokers as the most frequent smoking status in patients with lung cancer in Brazil.

Abstract

e13597 Background: Lung cancer is the principal cause of death from cancer worldwide. However, little is known of the clinic and histological profile from former smokers patients with lung cancer. Objectives: To characterize the clinical and histological profile and to identify independent factors associated with smoking status (former versus current) in patients with lung cancer in Brazil between 2010 and 2016. Methods: An ecological study was conducted using data from Brazilian hospital-based cancer registries between 2010 and 2016. Data with p-value < 0.20 in the univariate analysis were included in the logistic regression analysis by using the stepwise forward method, in order to control for potential confounders. Results: This study evaluated 23,462 patients with lung cancer diagnosed between 2010 and 2016 in Brazil. In general, the average age of all patients was 63.7 + 10.7 years old. Never smokers, former smokers and current smokers corresponded to 18.9 %, 35.2% and 45.9% of cases in the moment of the diagnosis, respectively. Current smokers were the most frequent smoking status, albeit its frequency decreased significantly during the period. Male and female former smokers had its frequency increasing over the period and male former smokers became more frequent than males current smokers since 2015. In multivariate analysis, comparing former versus smokers, the follow variables were statistically significant: former drinkers, older age group, higher schooling, married or living married, from non-public (private) health system insurance, living in region North, Northeast and West Center and more recent year of diagnosis. Conclusions: Recently, former smokers with lung cancer is increasing and became the most frequent smoking status, as a result of the very effective policies against to smoking in Brazil since 1990’s. The increase in that specific population discloses some interesting challenges and opportunities in clinical and translational settings.