The prevalence of clubbing in different types of lung cancer

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the relative frequency of digital clubbing in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and to find out whether there is a gender predominance in the frequency of clubbing. Patients and Methods: The study was a single center prospective study conducted at the Pulmonary Medicine Department in a university hospital. Between January 1988 and December 1998, 738 patients with histopathologic diagnoses of SCLC or NSCLC were enrolled. Twenty-six patients with a diagnosis of indifferentiated lung cancer were excluded. Results: Clubbing was present in 128 (17.3%) of the 738 patients and was detected in 17.5% of patients with NSCLC vs. 16.7% of patients with SCLC (X-2 test, P>0.05), and it was more common in males (18.6%) than in females (4.4%, Fisher's exact test, chi(2)=8.74, P<0.01). Conclusion: The incidence of clubbing was similar in both SCLC and NSCLC patients, which is inconsistent with classical knowledge in the literature, and digital clubbing was significantly more common in males than in females with lung cancer.