ROLE OF SMOKING IN PRIMARY PULMONARY MALIGNANCIES IN CENTRAL PUNJAB

Three hundred patients of primary malignancies of the lung from Gulab Devi Chest Hospital and other hospitals of Lahore were studied. The history of the Patients and their clinical findings were recorded. The sections of all the cases were stained with haematoxylin and eosin whereas all large cell carcinomas were stained with Alcian Blue-Periodic Acid-Schiff (AB-PAS) stain. Significantly large numbers of patients (70%) were smokers. 83.33% of patients were cigarette smokers whereas 7.14% were hukka smokers. The remaining (9.53%) was taking both cigarette and hukka. Amongst the cases of squamous cell carcinoma, the number of smokers was significantly more (P 0.001) as compared to those of adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma cases had significantly less (P 0.02) number of smokers as compared with small cell carcinoma.