Smoking and smoking-related lung cancer in female patients.

Smoking is the primary factor responsible for the epidemic of squamous cell lung cancer (SqLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC), however, there have been few studies which reported the relationship between smoking and SCLC in female patients. To examine the relationship between smoking and SCLC and SqLC in female patients, a retrospective chart review was performed in 877 patients with lung cancer diagnosed at Tsukuba University Hospital. In both SCLC and SqLC, the proportions of non-smokers were higher in female patients than those of male patients (p = 0.0001, p = 0.0001, respectively). A significant difference in smoking history was found between female and male patients who were diagnosed with SqLC and SCLC (p = 0.0001). In female patients, active smoking seems less responsible for the occurrence of smoking-related lung cancer compared with male patients, which suggests passive smoking influence the development of smoking-related lung cancer, especially in female patients.