[Analysis of bronchoscopy characteristics for 729 female patients with lung cancer.].

Background: The aim of this article is to study features of the bronchoscopy signs in female lung cancer patients.

Methods: The bronchoscopy data of 729 female lung cancer patients enrolled between January 1994 and June 2007 was analyzed, retrospectively.

Results: Most of the patients were middle-aged female (57.0%), then were the elderly (28.5%), and the youth composed much lower (14.0%). The most common histopathology was adenocarcinoma (42.8%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (23.9%) and small cell carcinoma (19.2%), and all of them increased in the past few years. The female lung cancers were more in the right lung (P <0.05), and the upper lobes (P <0.05). Among 729 female lung cancer patients, 92.0% had apparent signs. Most of adenocarcinoma had infiltrative changes (P <0.05), but most of squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma had proliferative changes (P <0.05). The most common sing of bronchoscopy in patients with atelectasis was proliferative changes (P <0.05), but the most common sings of bronchoscopy in patients with pleural effusion was infiltrative changes (P <0.05).

Conclusions: This study suggests brochoscopy is an important approach in diagnosis of female lung cancer. Paying more attention to the lung cancer of female patients and examining with bronchoscopy would be helpful for earlier diagnosis.