Pljučni rak kot poklicna in socialna bolezen

Apart from clear association with tobacco, other factors of importance for prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer have been offered little attention. We here present a case-control study focusing on social class and comparing lung cancer patients with those with large bowel cancer. A written questionnaire was completed by 248 consecutive patients with lung cancer and 244 patients with large bowel cancer. Both groups were comparable according to gender and age distribution. Data on place of birth, education, smoking history, diet and alcohol intake, body weight and height, profession, housing conditions and family income were analysed. As expected, there were significant differences between the two groups regarding smoking status. Patients with lung cancer had a significantly higher proportion of immigrants. The proportion of patients working as industrial workers or in other polluted working environment was also significantly higher among lung cancer patients, as compared to large bowel patients. This survey confirms that lung cancer is often a disease of low social class and points to polluted working environment as a co-factor in the etiology of the disease.Če izvzamemo jasno povezavo s kajenjem, so drugim dejavnikom, ki so pomembni za preventivo, diagnostiko in zdravljenje pljučnega raka, doslej namenjali malo pozornosti. Predstavljamo raziskavo, ki se je osredotočila na socialni položaj bolnikov. Anketo je izpolnilo 248 zaporednih bolnikov s pljučnim rakom, ki smo jih primerjali s kontrolno skupino 244 bolnikov z rakom debelega črevesa. Obe skupini sta bili primerljivi po spolu in starosti. Anketa je zajela podatke o rojstnem kraju, izobrazbi, kajenju, prehranjevalnih navadah, telesni teži in višini, poklicu, bivalnih razmerah in družinskih prihodkih. Kot smo lahko pričakovali, je bilo v skupini s pljučnim rakom značilno več sedanjih ali bivših kadilcev. Prav tako je bilo med bolniki s pljučnim rakom v primerjavi z rakom debelega črevesa statistično značilno več priseljencev iz drugih delov nekdanje Jugoslavije ter značilno večji odstotek delavcev v »umazanih«1 poklicih, še posebno pri obdelavi kovin. Študija potrjuje, da je pljučni rak pogostejši pri osebah iz nižjih socialnih slojev, in kaže, da je onesnaženo delovno okolje dejavnik, ki ob kajenju dodatno prispeva k nastanku bolezni