Urban vs. rural patients. Differences in stage and overall survival among patients treated surgically for lung cancer.

Introduction: Besides the undoubted influence of risk factors on morbidity and survival time, there are also other environmental factors, such as awareness of the prevalence of risk factors and the availability of modern diagnosis and treatment methods.

Objective: To evaluate differences in lung cancer 5-year overall survival rates between urban and rural patients hospitalized in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Medical University in Lublin, Poland, and possible influence of several risk factors on these rates.

Materials And Methods: The analysis was based on 125 lung cancer patients who underwent surgical procedures in years 2006-2007 and who agreed to take part in the survey. The study aimed at recognition of the health situation and selected demographic traits of people who had been treated surgically for lung cancer. The differences were evaluated between rural and urban inhabitants in gender, age, lung function, smoking habits, exposure to risk factors at work, family history of cancer, staging of the disease, histological type of cancer, post-surgical treatment, and their possible influence on overall survival.

Results: The results showed that the only noted differences between urban and rural population were in tobacco smoking and lung function. Survival rates were very similar and did not differ from the European average.

Conclusions: The assumption that Polish rural patients are presenting with later cancer stages at the time of diagnosis, and have worse chances for survival, has become invalid in modern times.