Histologic types of lung carcinoma and related family history of anatomic sites and histologic types of cancers

Abstract

Background: Familial factors are suggested to play roles in lung carcinogenesis, but may well be different for each histologic cell type.

Methods: Information regarding smoking, past medical history, and family history of malignant diseases among first-degree relatives was collected from a total of 1188 patients with primary lung carcinoma (participants) who were treated in the thoracic oncology ward at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. These data were analyzed for associations with the histologic type of the lung carcinoma. The main outcome measures were the relative risk of developing a malignancy, at any site or at certain specific sites, in first-degree relatives of participants who had a specific histologic type of lung carcinoma compared with the relative risk in those first-degree relatives of participants with other cell types.

Results: Participants with multiple malignant lesions reported significantly more first-degree relatives with a malignancy than those without multiple tumors (P = 0.008 by the Wilcoxon rank sum test). There was no statistically significant correlation between age, gender, smoking history, or histologic tumor type in the participant and the overall family history of malignancy. Site specific analyses revealed that participants with adenocarcinoma reported a family history of colorectal carcinoma, and those with squamous cell carcinoma reported a family history of head and neck carcinoma, more frequently than other participants (P = 0.041 and 0. 001, respectively, by chi-square analysis).

Conclusions: The data from the current study suggest an association between familial factors and histologic type of lung carcinoma. Genetic factors to determine individual susceptibility to lung carcinogenesis should be investigated according to each histologic type.