Surgical approach of bronchogenic cancer in correlation with tumor type and risk factors

BACKGROUND: This study is conducted with the aim to analyse the epidemiological pattern of bronchogenic carcinoma in Erbil City, Iraq, with identification of any underlying causative factor, gender variations, as well as surgical approach. METHODS: Patients with bronchogenic carcinoma who underwent an operatio were from Shar and PAR hospitals (n = 30) and their individual characteristics, such as age, gender male-to-female (M:F) ratios, weight loss, smoking status, histological types, and operative procedure in relation to the tumor subtype were obtained for each patient. RESULTS: The incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma increased with age proportionally. The male patients with an operation for bronchogenic carcinoma were more than females. 25 out of 30 patients experienced weight loss and 5 patients had no weight loss at the time of operation. Among all patients undergoing the operation, 96.67% were smokers and only 3.33% were non-smokers, in addition, the majority of the smoker patients were active smokers. Adenocarcinoma was commonest among operable adenocarcinoma with different histological subtypes in bronchogenic carcinoma, moreover, large cell carcinoma had the lowest rate. The dominant procedure performed for bronchogenic carcinoma was lobectomy, which was used more frequently than pneumonectomy. CONCLUSION: An apparent increase in bronchogenic carcinoma incidence was observed in Erbil that might indicate some local environmental risk factors, in addition to changing smoking habits. The study findings do not support the hypothesis that females in general are at higher risk for bronchogenic carcinoma development, but tobacco and histologic-specific susceptibility cannot be ruled out.