Introduction: Prison inmates are known to be more exposed to various lung cancer risk factors, and some studies have shown that lung cancer is the most common cancer in prisoners. However, no study has particularly focused on lung cancer features in this population.
Method: Charts of patients with lung cancer hospitalized in one of the French secured hospital units between 1997 and 2012 were reviewed. Data from this cohort were then compared to those of two large observational studies conducted in 2000 and 2010 (KBP studies).
Results: Thirty-two cases were included. All were men. The mean age was 52.2 ± 11.5 years, which was significantly lower than in the KBP-2000 (64.4 years) and KBP-2010 (65.5 years; both p < 0.0001) studies. The percentage of current smokers was much higher in prisoners (87.1 vs. 52.2 and 49.2%, respectively; both p < 0.001). Ninety percent of prisoners presented with at least one comorbidity. Lung cancer clinical presentation did not differ between prisoners and the reference populations. The median overall survival was 5.8 months (range 0-15.1) for all stages and 4.7 months (range 2.8-6.6) for stage IIIB/IV.
Conclusion: Although our study suffers from limitations, prisoners seem to develop lung cancer at a younger age and their prognosis is poor.