Comparison of Clinical and Genetic Characteristics Between Younger and Older Lung Cancer Patients.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical and genetic characteristics of young lung cancer cases, and to compare them with those of older cases. METHODS: We used the Thoracic Tumors Registry (TTR) as a data source representative of lung cancer cases diagnosed in Spain, and included all cases registered until 9/01/2023 which had information on age at diagnosis or the data needed to calculate it. We performed a descriptive statistical analysis and fitted logistic regressions to analyze how different characteristics influenced being a younger lung cancer patient. RESULTS: A total of 26,336 subjects were included. Lung cancer cases <50 years old had a higher probability of being women (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.21-1.57), being in stage III or IV (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.08-1.62), not having comorbidities (OR 5.21; 95% CI 4.59-5.91), presenting with symptoms at diagnosis (OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.29-1.81), and having ALK translocation (OR 7.61; 95% CI 1.25-46.32) and HER2 mutation (OR 5.71; 95% CI 1.34-24.33), compared with subjects ≥50 years. Among subjects <35 years old (n=61), our study observed a higher proportion of women (59.0% vs. 26.6%; p<0.001), never smokers (45.8% vs. 10.3%; p<0.001), no comorbidities (21.3% vs. 74.0%; p<0.001); ALK translocation (33.3% vs. 4.4%; p<0.001) and ROS1 mutation (14.3% vs. 2.3%; p=0.01), compared with subjects ≥35 years. CONCLUSIONS: Lung cancer displays differences by age at diagnosis which may have important implications for its clinical management.