Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in both men and women. Although most cases of lung cancer occur in the sixth to eighth decades of life, 5 to 10% are diagnosed at a young age. There are characteristic features in young patients with lung cancer that differ from those in older patients with lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine if the basal characteristics and survival in young patients with lung cancer differed from those of old patients.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 94 young patients who were under 45 years of age and compared them with 1,728 old patients (= 46 years of age) in 4 medical schools at Daegu, between August 1986 and July 1995.

Significantly more female patients and adenocarcinomas were found in the young patients group, when compared to the old patients. Cough and sputum were the most frequent presenting symptom in both age groups. This was followed by chest discomfort, dyspnea and hemoptysis. The rates of smoking was significantly lower in the young patients. There was no statistical difference in the severity of the disease in terms of staging between the two age groups. Young patients received treatment more frequently than the older patients. The location of the primary tumors was equally frequent in both the upper and lower lobe. However, the survival was better in the young patients (median survival time, 67.3 weeks), when compared to the old patients (median survival time, 26.8 weeks) (p<0.05).

Females and adenocarcinoma patients were predominant in young patients with lung cancer. The young patients appeared to have significantly better prognosis.