Histologic Distribution of Pulmonary Tumors in Lebanon: A 5-Year Single Institution Experience

Background: To compare the current histologic distribution of lung cancer in Lebanon to the worldwidetrends, according to the 2004 WHO Classification. Materials and
Methods: 1,760 patients with a pulmonarypathology examination at Hotel-Dieu de France University Hospital between July 2009 and July 2014 wereincluded.
Results: Some 676 out of the total investigated patients (38.4%) had a lung tumor. In 665 (98.4%) thetumors were malignant, with a mean age at diagnosis of 63.8 years and a male/female (M/F) sex ratio of 1.7:1.Among the malignant tumors, 86.2% were epithelial tumors with a mean age at diagnosis of 64.8 years and anM/F sex ratio of 1.9. Other malignant tumors consisted of metastatic tumors (10.2%), lymphoproliferative tumors(2.1%) and mesenchymal tumors (1.5%). Most common carcinoma subtypes were adenocarcinoma (48.0%),squamous cell carcinoma (23.0%) and small cell carcinoma (13.3%). Carcinoid tumors were the only carcinomasubtype with an M/F sex ratio below 1 (0.7). Salivary gland tumors were the carcinoma with lowest mean ageat diagnosis (45.5 years).
Conclusions: The histologic distribution of lung tumors in Lebanon is similar to thatin developed countries. We believe this resemblance is due to common smoking habits, known to be responsiblefor the increase of lung adenocarcinoma at the expense of other subtypes.