Characteristics of lung cancer patients with asbestos-related radiological findings

The purpose of the current study was to compare the characteristics of lung cancer patients who had exposure to asbestos and asbestos-related radiological findings (ARRF) to the characteristics of patients who had no exposure. Of the 766 lung cancer patients evaluated, 607 had no exposure to asbestos and no ARRF, 88 had ARRF and a history of exposure, remaining 71 patients had no exposure to asbestos occupationally and no ARRF, but we could not obtain environmental exposure history from them. So we excluded these 71 patients' data. The study patients were compared with respect to age, gender, smoking history, duration and nature of symptoms, findings on physical examination, tumor histological types, chest X-ray (CXR) findings, tumor site and stage, and survival. Lung cancer patients with ARRF were more often males, former smokers, and older than patients with no history of exposure to asbestos. There were no differences between the groups of patients in terms of the duration of symptoms, the distribution of symptoms, the findings on physical examination, tumor histological type, and the CXR findings. There was no difference between the two groups of patients in the distribution among tumor stages and median survival. The anatomic site of origin of the tumor in the group with ARRF was peripheral and in the lower zone of the lung. We suggest that specific attention should be given to the peripheral and lower zones of the lungs on CRX during the evaluation of the patients with ARRF for lung cancer.