Table 1.

Main clinical-pathological characteristics of lung cancer histotypes: Ticino (southern Switzerland), 1996–2010.

Variable	All cases N = 2467 (100%)	AC N = 997 (40.4%)	LCC/NSCLC N = 522 (21.2%)	SmCC N = 378 (15.3%)	SqCC N = 570 (23.1%)	P value
Age (yrs)
mean ± sd⁡	67.0 ± 10.4	66.0 ± 11.0	67.2 ± 10.4	67.4 ± 10.0	68.5 ± 9.3	<0.0001
median	68.0	67.0	68.0	68.0	69.0	0.0022
range	26–94	26–94	34–93	40–94	38–93
Age-specific groups, n (%)
<50	150 (6.1%)	83 (8.3%)	31 (5.9%)	21 (5.6%)	15 (2.6%)	<0.0001
50–59	395 (16.0%)	176 (17.7%)	87 (16.7%)	55 (14.5%)	77 (13.5%)
60–69	841 (34.1%)	336 (33.7%)	173 (33.1%)	133 (35.2%)	199 (34.9%)
70–79	813 (32.9%)	308 (30.9%)	169 (32.4%)	227 (33.6%)	209 (36.7%)
≥80	268 (10.9%)	94 (9.4%)	62 (11.9%)	42 (11.1%)	70 (12.3%)
Sex, n (%)
women	759 (30.8%)	373 (37.4%)	169 (32.4%)	106 (28.0%)	111 (19.5%)	<0.0001
men	1708 (69.2%)	624 (62.6%)	353 (67.6%)	272 (72.0%)	459 (80.5%)
Histological grade, n (%)
well differentiated	70 (3.8%)	52 (7.4%)	0 (0%)	NA	14 (3.1%)	<0.0001*
moderately differentiated	408 (22.1%)	211 (30.0%)	0 (0%)		192 (42.7%)
poorly differentiated	1365 (74.1%)	440 (62.6%)	522 (100%)		244 (54.2%)
unknown	624	294			120
Tumour extent at diagnosis
limited disease (M0)	1491 (60.4%)	600 (60.2%)	273 (52.3%)	178 (47.1%)	440 (77.2%)	<0.0001
extensive disease (M1)	976 (39.6%)	397 (39.8%)	249 (47.7%)	200 (52.9%)	130 (22.8%)
Period of diagnosis
1996–2003	1214 (49.2%)	408 (40.9%)	334 (64.0%)	197 (52.1%)	275 (48.3%)	<0.0001
2004–2010	1253 (50.8%)	589 (59.1%)	188 (36.0%)	181 (47.9%)	295 (51.7%)

AC: adenocarcinoma; LLC/NSCLC: large cell carcinoma/non-small-cell lung cancer; SmCC: small cell carcinoma; SqCC: squamous cell carcinoma; NA: not applicable

*The comparison was performed only between AC and SqCC; histological grade is not applicable for SmCC.