Lung Cancer in Women with a Family History of Cancer: The Spanish Female-specific Database WORLD07

Abstract

Background: The WORLD07 project is a female-specific database to prospectively analyze the characteristics of Spanish women with lung cancer.

Patients and methods: We analyzed and compared lung cancer features in women with and without a family history of cancer/lung cancer.

Results: Two thousand and sixty women were included: 876 had a family history of cancer (lung cancer, 34%) and 886 did not, with no significant differences between groups, except for smoking status (p=0.036). We found statistically significant correlations between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and smoking status in patients with a family history of cancer (r=-0.211; p<0.001) and lung cancer (r=-0.176; p<0.001). Longer median overall survival was observed in women with a family history of cancer and lung cancer.

Conclusion: Among Spanish women with lung cancer, a greater proportion were current smokers in those with a family history of cancer/lung cancer. There was a significant correlation between the presence of EGFR mutation and smoking.

Keywords: Cancer; Spanish women; WORLD07 database; epidermal growth factor receptor; family history; lung cancer risk; menopausal status; smoking.