Lung cancer in young Chinese.

Seventy-six patients less than 40 years of age were diagnosed from 1970 to 1983 as having lung cancer. We compared the smoking history, clinical features, cell types, and treatments in this series with those of 804 patients with primary lung cancer aged 40 or more. In the present study the association between smoking and lung cancer in young Chinese was substantially weaker (only 41.1% were smokers). The high incidences of adenocarcinoma (59.2%) and poorly differentiated carcinoma (11.8%) and the small number of epidermoid carcinoma (13.2%) in the young contrasted with those in the older patients. Though the young patients had relatively delayed diagnosis and more advanced disease, they did not have significantly poorer resectability and worse prognosis. But the 19 patients (25%) aged 30 or less ran a more virulent course.