When contronted with a new lung cancer case, are we often thinking of and searching for an occupational etiology?
Chiriac, C.-F.; Gavriliţă, L.
Pneumologia 51(4): 272-276
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 2067-2993 PMID: 12693165 Document Number: 543255
Besides smoking, the occupational exposure to carcinogens could be an important etiological factor responsible in almost 15% of lung cancer cases. In a retrospective study carried out on 304 patients (244 men and 60 females; mean age 63.4 years and median 64.6 years), diagnosed between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2001, we looked for the percent of patients sent for consultation in Occupational Pathology department, the number of those who had a declaration of their cancer as occupation related and the carcinogens responsible. Sixty patients (19.7%) had a consultation in Occupational Pathology department and an occupational disease declaration was done on 27 of them. Among the patients non consulted in the Occupational Pathology department, an occupational exposure could have been suspected in 37 (12.2%) for the reason of the nature of their jobs. The principal carcinogens found were: asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, welding smoke, crystalline silica and metallic powders. It seems necessary to try to search, by taking a detailed work history, for an exposure to a possible carcinogen during occupational life of the patients having diagnosed with a lung cancer.