RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SMOKING AND HISTOLOGY OF LUNG CANCER IN MALAPPURAM DISTRICT OF KERALA, SOUTH INDIA

Background: Lung Cancer is the commonly diagnosed neoplasm in males in India. The main histological types of lung cancer are squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma. However, histological types may vary with the changes in geographical region, smoking status and other social factors. This study aimed to find out the relationship of smoking and histological types of lung cancer. Methods: We performed a prospective observational analysis of 238 histopathologically proven cases of lung cancer in Malappuram district of Kerala during the period of 2017 and 2018. Results: A total of 238 patients involved, 82.77% were males and the male to female ratio was 4.8:1. Of the 238 patients, 166 patients (69.75%) had history of smoking in their life time and 72 patients (30.25%) were non-smokers. In males, majority of patients were smokers (83.25%) and in female patients, 39 (95.12%) were non-smokers. Among Smokers, squamous cell carcinoma (63.25%) is the most common histological type followed by adenocarcinoma (22.89%). In case of non-smokers, the status is entirely different and here adenocarcinoma is the most common type and which constitute 66.67% and the presence of squamous cell carcinoma in non-smokers is very less and only 15.27%. Conclusion: In male smokers, squamous cell carcinoma is still the most frequent histological type of lung carcinoma in our study area. In case of females and non-smokers adenocarcinoma is the predominant histological type.