Lung cancer is the leading cause of malignancy-related death worldwide. In
the present study, we reviewed the epidemiologic and clinical features of lung cancer in
Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Between January 1999 and December 2009, 2,183 patients
with lung cancer were enrolled in this study. One thousand five hundred ninety-one (73%)
patients were male and 592 (27%) patients were female. Median age was 70 years, with a
range of 15-93 years. Seventy-six percent of patients had smoking history. One thousand
nine hundred five (87%) patients were non-small cell lung cancer and the predominant histological
type was adenocarcinoma (51%). Among all 2,183 patients, 702 (32%) belonged to
elderly population. Four hundred seventy-one (22%), 213 (10%), 24 (1%), 116 (5%), 238 (11%),
370 (17%) and 678 (31%) patients had stage IA, IB, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB and IV lung cancer, respectively.
In Tokushima University Hospital, 516 (29%), 191 (11%), 58 (3%), 755 (43%) and
216 (12%) patients were initially treated with chemotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy, thoracic
radiotherapy, operation and best supportive care, respectively. The median time to
progression (TTP) and the median survival time (MST) of patients treated with chemotherapy
and chemo-radiotherapy were 3.5 months, 13.0 months and 7.0 months, 18.0 months,
respectively. The median TTP and the MST of 33 elderly patients treated with chemotherapy
were 3.3 months and 18.0 months, respectively, which were comparable with those of
total population. These results indicated the benefit of chemotherapy in elderly patients
with advanced lung cancer by proper selection
