BACKGROUNDWith the development of social industrialization and aging of the population, patients with lung cancer have the tendency of becoming youthful and elderly, therefore the way of treatment should be also changed. In resent years, lung cancer in young and elderly patients have been reported respectively, but simultaneous contrast analysis of clinical feature and prognosis in elderly, normal and youthful patients have been rarely reported. Based on the clinic data in the patients, the clinical feature and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer at different ages were analyzed.

METHODSFrom January 1996 to January 2003, 1380 patients with NSCLC were treated surgically in thoracic department in our hospital, the patients were divided into three group based on their age, group 1 (G1) (range ≤40), group 2 (G2) (range 41-69), group 3 (G3) (range ≥70). The clinical feature and prognosis were analyzed in each group.

RESULTSThe mean age in the whole group was 58.16±0.26, and 35.76±0.57 (range 12-40) in G1, 58.00±0.22 (range 41-69) in G2, 72.30±0.21 (range 70-80) in G3. The ratio of lung cancer in female between G1 and G3 was significant different (P=0.024). The coexisting diseases in G3 were more common than those of other groups (P=0.000). Squamous cell carcinoma was the main type in histology, accounting for 41.79% (28/67), 54.12% (644/1190) and 58.54% (72/123) in each group respectively (P=0.080), but the ratio of adenocarcinoma, higher than that of other groups, were 43.28% (29/67), 29.50% (351/1190) and 26.82% (33/123) (P=0.036). Lobectomy and pneumonectomy were the main surgical procedures, accounting for 58.21%, 65.29%, 78.86% (P=0.004) and 34.33%, 26.22%, 12.20% (P=0.001), respectively. The ratio of stage III were 43.28% (29/67), 38.82% (462/1190), and 26.02% (32/123) in each groups (P=0.015). 55.22% (37/67) in G1 received adjuvant chemotherapy, 47.48% (565/1190) in G2, and 29.27% (36/123) in G3 (P=0.000). 5-year survival rate was 38.96% in the whole group, 29.99% in G1, 39.61% in G2, and 37.99% in G3 (P=0.494).

CONCLUSIONSIn young patients with non-small cell lung cancer, female and adenocarcinoma make up the majority of the number, and a lot of patients are in advanced stage and likely to adopt adjuvant chemotherapy. While in elderly, squamous cell carcinoma accounts for the majority of the number, and more coexisting diseases are accompanied, much more complications occur after surgical procedure. Nevertheless, their prognosis has no significant difference.