Objectives: Late recognition of lung cancer is the major factor contributing towards its unsuccessful treatment. We conducted a prospective study to define any significant relationship of presenting symptoms with the diagnosis of lung cancer with a view to develop a model to identify those at high risk.
Methods: A consecutive series of 587 patients referred to our rapid access chest clinic with the suspicion of lung cancer were included. The presenting symptoms, chest x-ray findings and final diagnosis of all the patients were recorded. Chi-square and t-test were used for univariate analysis. A model was generated from logistic regression analysis and the discriminatory power of the model was assessed using area under receiver operator characteristic curve.
Results: Univariate analysis demonstrated that smoking, anorexia, weight loss and voice change were significantly more common in patients with lung cancer (p
Key words: Lung cancer, chest x-ray, smoking, weight loss.
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