Medical history (history of illness) is an important component in the diagnosis of bronchial carcinoma (lung cancer).
Family history
- Are there frequent tumor cases in your family?
Social history
- What is your profession?
Current medical history/systemic history (somatic and psychological complaints).
- Have you noticed symptoms such as irritable cough, fever, or shortness of breath?
- Have you ever coughed up blood?
- Do you feel listless?
- Do you have night sweats?
- Do you have chest pain?
- Do you have shortness of breath?*
- Do you have weight loss?
- Have you noticed hoarseness or difficulty swallowing?
- Have you noticed a dip in performance?
Vegetative anamnesis including nutritional anamnesis.
- Have you unintentionally lost body weight?
- Do you eat a balanced diet?
- Do you smoke? If so, how many cigarettes, cigars or pipes per day?
- Are you a passive smoker?
- Do you drink alcohol? If so, what drink(s) and how many glasses per day?
Self history incl. medication history.
- Pre-existing conditions (tumor disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
- Operations
- Allergies
Medication history
- ACE inhibitors-angiotensin-converting enzyme metabolizes bradykinin, an active vasodilator, in addition to angiotensin I; bronchial carcinomas express bradykinin receptors; bradykinin may stimulate vascular endothelial growth factor release (= promote angiogenesis and thus tumor growth). In patients receiving ACE inhibitors, the incidence was 1.6 per 1,000 person-years versus 1.2 per 1,000 person-years in the other hypertensive patients; ACE inhibitor therapy increased the risk relatively by 14%.ACE inhibitors and lung cancer: causal relationship not established after evaluation by the European Medicines Agency.
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) ?
- Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) ?
Environmental history
- Professional contact
- With carcinogens – e.g., asbestos, man-made mineral fibers (MMMFs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arsenic, chromium VI compounds, nickel, halogenated ethers (“haloethers”), especially dichlorodimethyl ether, radioactive materials, etc.
- Coke oven raw gases
- Handling tar and bitumen (road construction).
- Inhalation of coal dust (miners).
- Inhalation of quartz dust
- Arsenic
- Men: mortality risk (risk of death)/relative risk (RR) 3.38 (95 percent confidence interval 3.19-3.58).
- Women: Mortality risk/relative risk 2.41 (95-percent confidence interval 2.20-2.64).
- Tetrachloroethene (perchloroethylene, perchloro, PER, PCE)?, in women.
- Diesel exhaust (due topolycyclic hydrocarbons, PAH).
- Air pollutants: particulate matter (due to car exhaust, combustion processes in industry and domestic heating) – already particulate matter concentration below the European limit increases the likelihood of developing lung cancer
- Radon – after smoking, involuntary inhalation of radioactive radon at home is the most common trigger of lung cancer
* If this question has been answered with “Yes”, an immediate visit to the doctor is required! (Data without guarantee)
