Lung cancer symptoms at diagnosis: results of a nationwide registry study

Abstract

BackgroundLung cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer death. Despite its high incidence and mortality, there are few studies describing its symptoms at diagnosis broken down by tumour stage and tobacco use. Accordingly, this study was proposed to describe the frequency of the most common symptoms of non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) at diagnosis, with a breakdown by stage and tobacco use.Patients and methodsCases were collected from the Spanish Thoracic Tumour Registry, a nationwide registry sponsored by the Spanish Lung Cancer Group. More than 50 hospitals recruited histologically confirmed lung cancer cases and information was gathered through personal interview plus data contained in the electronic clinical record. There were no data available on the lag between the appearance of the first symptoms and diagnosis of lung cancer.ResultsA total of 9876 patients (74% male, median age 64 years) were recruited from 2016 to 2019. Of these, 12.5% presented with SCLC. Stage IV was the most frequent stage at diagnosis (46.6%), and the most frequent symptom was cough (33.9%), followed by dyspnoea (26.7%). No symptom was present in 59% of patients diagnosed in stage I; 40% of stage I patients presented with at least one symptom, while 27.7% of patients in stage IV had no symptoms at diagnosis. Cough was the most frequent symptom in SCLC (40.6%), followed by dyspnoea (34.3%). The number of symptoms was similar across the respective smoking categories in SCLC, and differences between the symptoms analysed did not exceed 7% in any case.ConclusionThe absence of the most frequent symptoms (ie, cough, pain, dyspnoea) should not lead to a decision to rule out the presence of lung cancer. A relevant percentage of stage IV patients displayed no symptoms at diagnosis.

Are there differences by sex in lung cancer characteristics at diagnosis? —a nationwide study

“…For the present study, patients have been recruited from 63 hospitals distributed throughout the country. Some results from this Registry have been recently published (9)(10)(11). The Registry was registered in 2016 in the ClinicalTrials.gov database with the code NCT02941458.…”

Small-cell lung cancer in never-smokers

“…These results are similar to a recently published study from the Spanish Tumor Thoracic Registry, which included >1300 SCLC cases, and where cough was the most frequent symptom. 27 As much as 10% of patients were asymptomatic at the moment of diagnosis and only one had symptoms attributable to the metastatic disease.…”

Prognostic indicators of survival in patients with small-cell lung cancer at a tertiary care center in Lebanon

“…The non-specificity of the symptoms at the time of presentation significantly contributed to a delay in the diagnosis of lung cancer. 9 These symptoms include respiratory symptoms as cough, wheezing, hemoptysis as well as constitutional symptoms. 10 This was consistent with the results of our study which showed that the most frequent symptoms at the time of presentation were respiratory symptoms followed by systemic symptoms such as fever, fatigue, weakness and weight loss.…”

“…Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. 1 It accounts for around 9.2% of all newly diagnosed cancers in Lebanon. 2 It is classified into small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).…”