Lung cancer in young patients: analysis of a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Abstract

The overrepresentation of females and blacks in the group of younger patients with lung cancer suggests an increased susceptibility to lung carcinogens in these populations. Overall, this study suggests that lung cancer is not a more aggressive disease in younger patients and that all patients with lung cancer should be managed along the same therapeutic guidelines.

Lung cancer in young females

“…By contrast, the more frequent use of a combination of all treatment methods in the younger patient groups with advanced disease could only be linked to a "modest" overall better prognosis. RAMALINGAM et al [41] and others [43±44] found similar results and highlighted that therapy is not only guided by disease stage, histologic cell type, and patients' performance, but also by the patients' and attending physicians' "philosophic viewpoint". Young patients were treated aggressively more often due to their better overall medical condition, their desire to do everything possible, and the physicians' reluctance to accept realistic therapeutic limitations in younger individuals.…”

Predictors of survival for younger patients less than 50 years of age with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): A California Cancer Registry analysis

“…Similarly, a registry study of Japanese lung cancer patients aged 20-49 diagnosed between 1958 and 2003, and a SEER analysis of lung cancer patients less than age 50 also showed a trend for lower mortality among young adults [4,19]. There are several possible explanations for this emerging observation.…”

“…Some community-based and national registry analyses of all forms of bronchogenic carcinoma have found improved outcomes in younger cohorts [18,19]. A more recent surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) study of NSCLC patients <40 years of age concluded that "despite presenting with stage IV disease more often, the overall and cancer-specific survivals are better in (the) younger than in the older cohort" [7].…”

Hypopituitarism due to Pituitary Metastasis of Lung Cancer: Case of a 21-Year-Old Man.

“…In one large series, only 21 of 31,266 patients (0.07%) with lung cancer were less than 29 years old, and only 1.2% were less than 39 years old (10). Smoking is considered one of the risk factors for lung cancer even in young patients (1, 2, ll).…”