Knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking in subjects of lung cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world since 1988, both in terms of incidence and mortality among both men and women. Approximately half of the cases of lung cancer now occur in developing countries compared to 1980. Tobacco smoking is by far the predominant risk factor for lung cancer. A knowledge, attitude and practice of smoking among 132 cases of lung cancer in this study was undertaken. Amongst 113 ever smokers, out of 132 cases, 91.18% of males and 36.36% of female subjects continued smoking despite knowing the harmful effects of tobacco, displayed over the cigarette or bidi packets. In these group squamous cell carcinoma was the most common type followed by adenocarcinoma. Among the never smokers adenocarcinoma was the commonest type, females accounting for 75% of the cases, though a good number was observed among male ever smokers, signifying the changing histological types of lung cancer today.