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Background : Patients with lung cancer and their relatives often ask the advice of relative or friends who are doctors on the treatment and prognosis of the disease. Therefore a doctor's opinion may play a role in determining the treatment modality and affect therapeutic compliance of patients. The purpose of this study was to find the opinion of general practitioners on lung cancer treatment. Method : A mail survey for general practitioners in Taegu City and Northern Kyungsang Province was performed. Each individual was sent a written questionnaire in which he or she was asked for ten questions about management and prognosis of lung cancer. Results : Two hundred and twenty eight doctors filled in the questionnaire. Of the respondents, 68% had the experience of being asked about lung cancer by their friends or relatives. About 52% replied that it was better to tell the patient of his or her disease. And about 22% considered it better to follow the relatives' opinion. On the question about choosing the treatment modality, following the doctors' plan was most appropriate in 86.9%, showing that most respondents favored actively recommending doctors. Nonsurgical treatment was preferable in patients over 80 years old with resectable lung cancer and with an increase in age, significant increase was observed in respondents recommending nonsurgical treatment. Most respondents said that they would actively recommend or advise following the doctors' plan about radiotherapy and chemotherapy. But a large percent of the respondents had a negative view on the effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Conclusion : The opinions of general practitioners on the treatment and prognosis of lung cancer was variable. And they did not prefer active treatment for patients with old age or advanced lung cancer.

연구배경: 폐암은 현재 우리나라에서 암사망의 가장 흔한 원인의 하나로 인식되고 있다. 많은 의료인들이 현재 폐암치료에 대해 회의적인 견해를 가지고 있음에도 불구하고 폐암치료의 점진적인 발전과 더불어 폐암환자의 생존률도 조금씩 향상되고 있음은 주지의 사실이다. 그러나 많은 수의 환자들은 여러가지 요인들에 의해 적절한 치료를 거부하거나 포기하는 실정이다. 폐암환자에 있어 치료 순응도에 영향을 미치는 요인을 평가하고 치료순응도를 향상시킬 수 있는 방안을 마련하고자 본 연구를 시행하였다. 방 법: 1989년 1월부터 1996년 12월까지 경북대학교 병원에서 원발성 폐암으로 진단된 환자 1141명 가운데 비교적 의무기록이 충실하고 활도도가 ECOG기준으로 grade 0-III인 903명을 대상으로 하였다. 나이, 성별, 흡연력, 음주력, 종교유무, 배우자유무, 직업과 학력등의 인구학적 특성 및 사회경제적 특성과 증상유무, 조직형, 병기, 수행상태 등의 병적특성에 따른 치료순응도를 후향적으로 분석하였다. 결 과: 치료순응률은 1989-1990년 57.3-61.3%에서 1995-1996년 64.2-67.5%로 연도에 따라 증가하는 경향이 있었다. 치료순응도는 연령, 교육수준, 직업과 유의한 상관관계가 있었으며, 성별, 배우자유무, 흡연력에 따른 치료순응도의 차이는 없었다. 증상을 가진 경우보다 무증상인 환자의 치료순응도가 유의하게 높았으며, 수행상태가 양호할수록 치료순응도가 유의하게 높았다. 소세포암에 비해 비소세포암에서 치료순응도가 유의하게 높았으나, 비소세포암가운데 병기 I기와 II기를 제외하였을 경우 조직형에 따른 치료순응도의 차이는 없었다. 소세포암과 비소세포암 모두에서 진행된 병기일수록 치료순응도가 유의하게 낮았다. 결 론: 폐암환자들의 치료순응도는 64%로 매우 낮았으며, 특히 교육수준과 병기가 치료순응도와 가장 밀접한 관계가 있었다. 따라서 이와같은 요인들이 있는 환자들의 경우 폐암과 치료과정에 대한 교육이 필요할 것으로 생각된다. 본 연구에서는 인적 사회경제적 특성과 병적 특성을 중심으로 치료순응도를 조사하였으나 향후 치료에 대한 환자의 인식도와 치료의 부작용과 같은 치료 특성과 환자-의사관계 풍이 순응도에 미치는 영향과 순응도가 낮은 환자들을 대상으로 교육프로그램을 실시하여 순응도의 향상을 가져올 수 있는지에 관한 전향적인 연구가 필요할 것으로 생각된다. 【Background : In recent years, lung cancer has been one of most common cause of death in Korea. Despite many physician's high degree of pessimism about the gains made in treatment, progressive improvement in the survival of lung cancer by treatment has occurred, particulary in the early stages of the disease. However, a lot of patients refuse treatment or give up in the fight against the disease. This study was done to evaluate factors influencing the compliance to therapy and to lead in the establishment of special programs to enhance compliance in patients with lung cancer. Methods: The medical records of 903 patients, whose ECOG(Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance status was 3 or less and whose medical record was relatively satisfactory, among 1141 patients diagnosed with lung cancer between January 1989 and December 1996 were reviewed retrospectively. Compliance was classified into three groups based on the degree of compliance with physicians practice guideline: (a) compliants; (b) patients who initially complied but gave up of themselves midway during the course of treatment; (c) noncompliants who refused the treatment. Results: The overall compliance rate was 63.9%, which was progressively increased from 57.3-61.3% in 1989 and 1990 to 64.2-67.5% in 1995 and 1996. Age, education level and occupation of patients bore statistically significant relationship with the compliance but sex, marital status and smoking history did not. The compliance was significantly higher in patients without symptoms than with, and was also significantly higher in patients with good performance status. The compliance was significantly high in patients with NSCLC(non-small cell lung cancer) compared to SCLC(small cell lung cancer), but after exclusion of stage I and II, among NSCLC, which had higher compliance to surgery there was no significant difference of compliance by histology. The compliance was significantly lower in advanced stage. Conclusion: To enhance the compliance, special care including education programs about therapy including complication and prognosis are necessary, especially for educationally and economically disadvantaged patients.】

Background: Accurate staging is important to determine treatment modalities and to predict prognosis for the patients with lung cancer. The simple two-stage system of the Veteran's Administration Lung Cancer study Group has been used for staging of small cell lung cancer(SCLC) because treatment usually consists of chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. However, this system does not accurately reflect segregation of patients into homogenous prognostic groups. Therefore, a variety of new staging system have been proposed as more intensive treatments including either intensive radiotherapy or surgery enter clinical trials. We evaluate the prognostic importance of TNM staging, which has the advantage of providing a uniform detailed classification of tumor spread, in patients with SCLC. Methods: The medical records of 166 patients diagnosed with SCLC between January 1989 and December 1996 were reviewed retrospectively. The influence of TNM stage on survival was analyzed in 147 patients, among 166 patients, who had complete TNM staging data. Results: Three patients were classified in stage I / II, 15 in stage III a, 78 in stage IIIb and 48 in stage IV. Survival rate at 1 and 2 years for these patients were as follows: stage I / II, 75% and 37.5% ; stage IIIa, 46.7% and 25.0% ; stage III b, 34.3% and 11.3% ; and stage IV, 2.6% and 0%. The 2-year survival rates for 84 patients who received chemotherapy(more than 2 cycles) with or without radiotherapy were as follows: stage I / II, 37.5% ; stage rna, 31.3% ; stage IIIb 13.5% ; and stage IV 0%. Overall outcome according to TNM staging was significantly different whether or not received treatment. However, there was no significant difference between stage IIIa and stage IIIb though median survival and 2-year survival rate were higher in stage IIIa than stage IIIb. Conclusion: These results suggest that the TNM staging system may be helpful for predicting the prognosis of patients with SCLC.

BackgroundCyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays an important role in the development of lung cancer. DNA sequence variations in theCOX-2gene may lead to altered COX-2 production and/or activity, and so they cause inter-individual differences in the susceptibility to lung cancer. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the association between the8473T>Cpolymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region of theCOX-2gene and the risk of lung cancer in a Korean population.MethodsTheCOX-2genotypes were determined using PCR-based primer-introduced restriction analysis in 582 lung cancer patients and in 582 healthy controls that were frequency-matched for age and gender.ResultsThe distribution of theCOX-2 8473T>Cgenotypes was not significantly different between the overall lung cancer cases and the controls. However, when the cases were categorized by the tumor histology, the combined8473 TC+CCgenotype was associated with a significantly decreased risk of adenocarcinoma as compared with the8473 TTgenotype (adjusted OR = 0.64; 95% CI = 0.46–0.90,P= 0.01). On the stratification analysis, the protective effect of the combined8473 TC+CCgenotype against adenocarcinoma was statistically significant in the males, older individuals and ever-smokers (adjusted OR = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.39–0.91,P= 0.02; adjusted OR = 0.55; 95% CI = 0.33–0.93,P= 0.03; and adjusted OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.37–0.87,P= 0.01, respectively).ConclusionThese findings suggest that theCOX-2 8473T>Cpolymorphism could be used as a marker for the genetic susceptibility to adenocarcinoma of the lung.