Characteristics of lung cancer in Korea, 1997

The high proportion of smokers and the incidence of advanced, unresectable lung cancer in Korea were examined to aid the development of a national anti-smoking program and the early detection of lung cancer. Koreans are a single racial group with a high smoking rate among men and a contrastingly low smoking rate among women. This report documents a retrospective investigation conducted by The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease into the characteristics of all lung cancers diagnosed between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 1997 in Korea. Among the 3794 patients included in this study, 76.8% were smokers and, in particular, 89.8% of the males were smokers. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most frequent type of lung cancer encountered (44.7%), followed by adenocarcinoma (27.9%). The smoking rate in the case of adenocarcinoma was significantly lower than that found in both squamous cell carcinoma and small cell cancer. The most common symptom was a cough. Only 7.2% of patients were asymptomatic. Bronchoscopic biopsy has a primary role in the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma and small cell cancer, but percutaneous needle biopsy has a more important role in the case of adenocarcinoma. Two-thirds of the nonsmall cell lung cancer patients were detected in the unresectable advanced stages (IIIB and IV). In contrast to other countries, squamous cell carcinoma is still the most frequent type of lung cancer in Korea. The high proportion of smokers and the incidence of advanced, unresectable lung cancer at diagnosis have urged development of a national anti-smoking program to promote the cessation of smoking and the early detection of lung cancer.