Table 1.

Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.

	Characteristic	N=54	%
Gender	Male	30	55.6
	Female	24	44.4
Age	Male	60.3	38.2–77.2*
	Female	65.8	37.7–79.5*
Classification by the age of 65	<65	32	59.3
	≥65	22	40.7
Asbestos exposure	Yes	35	64.8
	No	9	16.7
	Unknown	10	18.5
Smoking	Yes	22	40.7
	No	32	59.3
Ecog ps* at the time of diagnosis	0	4	7.4
	1	30	55.6
	2	17	31.5
	3	3	5.6
Histological type	Epithelial	27	50.0
	Sarcomatoid	0	0.0
	Mixed	7	13.0
	Undefined	20	37.0
Pathological stage	2	2	3.7
	3	15	27.8
	4	37	68.5
Clinical stage	2	5	9.2
	3	16	29.6
	4	33	61.2
Presenting symptom	Shortness of breath	23	42.6
	Shortness of breath + chest pain	23	42.6
	Shortness of breath + effusion	8	14.8
Side of involvement	Right	28	51.9
	Left	25	46.2
	Bilateral	1	1.9
Pleural effusion	Yes	46	85.2
	No	8	14.8
Pleural effusion	Unilateral	45	83.3
	Bilateral	1	1.9

ECOG-PS – Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-performance status;

^*95% Confidence interval (CI).