engleski

Epidemiological analysis of lung carcinoma in the central Dalmatia region: Results of twenty year follow up

A several-fold increase in the incidence of lung cancer during the last 20 years hasbeen obvious in the central Dalmatia region. It has been on a constant increase in both men andwomen. A 2.4-fold increase has been recorded in male, and 4.2-fold in female population. The ma-jority of patients are long-time cigarette smokers. Thirty years ago this habit was characteristic formen, while today the number of female smokers has been on an increase (the percentage of femalepatients cigarette smokers increased from 17.8% to 47.3%). Most patients are older than 65 and to-gether with those over 60 years of age they make over 42% of lung carcinoma patients.The increasedincidence of adenocarcinoma not directly connected with cigarette smoking, on the account of adecrease in the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung has been confirmed. The highestincrease was recorded during the postwar years (by as much as 32% in 2000), which could be attrib-uted to severe psychical traumas and other hardships related to the war and life in the postwar pe-riod. The increase in the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma in women (from 17.5% to 20.4%)could probably be attributed to the increase in the number of female smokers. The decrease in theincidence of small cell anaplastic lung carcinoma was evenly distributed in both sexes (from 27% to22.6%). Comparison of data obtained for one part of Croatia (coastal region) with global data sug-gests a similar epidemiological pattern to exist in the south and southeast Europe (south Italy, Spain, Greece).

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