[Survival and epidemiological characteristics of women with lung cancer in Reunion]

Lung cancer is a common disease throughout the world, representing the main cause of death from cancer. Its incidence in the female population is increasing. In metropolitan France and Reunion Island, the main risk factor remains tobacco smoking. However, environmental, genetic and hormonal factors appear to play a role in bronchial oncogenesis and the survival of affected women is better than that of men. We studied retrospectively the survival and characteristics of a cohort in Reunion Island, diagnosed with lung cancer between January 2017 and December 2018. In total, 501 patients were included over the period including 166 women. The median overall survival was 23 months in women against 11 months in men (P<0.0005). Male sex has been identified as a poor prognostic factor for overall survival (HR=1.338; 95% CI=1.007-1.778) regardless of disease stage. Women smoked less often than men 85.4% of them had adenocarcinoma, with more EGFR mutations than men, and their environmental exposures were lower. The female population of Reunion Island in our study had better overall survival than the men. Smoking status, environmental exposures, histological and molecular characteristics varied by sex.