Determining the Prevalence of Primary Lung Malignancies by Histopathological Types and Gender: A Five-year Study

The high incidence of lung cancer and its poor prognosis have led to significant health problems in recent decades. This research aimed to study the prevalence of histopathological types of primary lung malignancies, focusing on treatment plans and their effective causes. 

This descriptive cross-sectional study employed a census method over 5 years (2016-2021). A total of 567 diagnosed cases of primary malignant tumors of the lung were extracted from the department’s records. Then, their slides were reviewed according to WHO 2004 histological classification of lung tumors and entered into the checklist. 

In this study, there were 567 lung malignancies, of which 434(77.1%) affected male patients and 130(22.9%) female patients, with a mean age of 66.1±12.3 years. The most common tumors among men and women were adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (25.6% and 9.3%, respectively). Among the clinical symptoms, shortness of breath was the most common (24.7%). Cough with shortness of breath (24.2%), hemoptysis (10.9%), and weight loss (6.5%) were other clinically common manifestations. Chemotherapy had the highest treatment frequency (63.3%). Moreover, 432 patients (79.2%) had a history of smoking, 143(25.2%) reported a history of drug use, and 30.7% died of the cancer, resulting in a survival rate of 69.3%.

The results of the present study showed that the most common tumors were adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and their prevalence was higher in men than women during the study period. Furthermore, lung cancer treatment is usually not associated with the desired results, and the prognosis of lung cancer is still poor.