Diagnosing lung cancer at a younger age and with male dominance: Comparison of Turkish patients with United States patients.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The risk of lung cancer (LC) increases with an older age and is most frequently diagnosed among patients aged 65-74 years with an increasing women ratio over the years in the United States (US). AIM: This study aimed to demonstrate the age and gender distribution of Turkish LC patients at diagnosis over the past 10 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 5,201 LC patients who had been admitted to the Institute of Oncology, a tertiary referral center, from January 2011 to December 2020 were included in the study. RESULTS: The median age at diagnosis was 62 years. This was 9 years younger than that of the US patients according to surveillance, epidemiology, and end results program data from 2015 to 2019, showing that the median age at diagnosis was 71 years. The distribution curve of the age-specific incidence ratios significantly shifted to the left compared to the American data. The majority of the patients were men (79.2%); women were 20.8%. These values were quite different from the US patients; the distribution of gender was nearly identical, with 51.8% for men and 48.2% for women according to American Cancer Society data from 2011 to 2020. The changes in the ratios of Turkish and US LC patients by sex were identical over the years; although the proportion of men has been in a downtrend, the proportion of women has been in an uptrend in both countries. CONCLUSION: Turkish LC patients are diagnosed at younger ages and male-dominant compared to LC patients from the US, and this portends a significant health problem. Therefore, efforts to quit smoking must be increased.