Presentation and Stage-Specific Outcomes of Lifelong Never-smokers with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

Background: Tobacco smoking leads to lung cancer. Approximately 10% of patients with lung cancer are life long never-smokers. There are only limited data available on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of lung cancer in never-smokers from the Western hemisphere. Methods: Demographic and survival information was collected on 254 never-smokers with a confirmed pathologic diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by reviewing their medical records and the Social Security database. Results: The study population consisted of 182 (71.6%) women and 72 (28.3%) men. The median age was 70 years (range: 31–91 years). Adenocarcinoma was the most common histology accounting for 60.8% of all patients, followed by NSCLC not otherwise specified (14.4%), bronchoalveolar carcinoma (13.6%), squamous cell carcinoma (8.8%), and large-cell type (2.4%). Majority of patients presented with stage III or IV disease (62.5%). We compared survival between never-smokers and smokers with NSCLC matched for gender, histology, tumor stage, and years of diagnosis. No significant difference in 5-year survival was seen between never-smokers (27.2%) and smokers with NSCLC (31.3%; p = 0.73). Conclusions: Two thirds of patients with lung cancer who report no history of tobacco smoking are women. In the matched case–control analysis, we report no significant survival difference between lung cancer in never-smokers and those with history of tobacco smoking and lung cancer.