Data607_Assignment1

Author

Shanice Smith

Published

September 6, 2026

Overview

The dataset chosen for the assignment is the Lung Cancer Risk Factors & Survival Dataset from Laxmikanta Roy. The CSV was originally found on Kaggle. The dataset contains 2,000 lung cancer patient records spanning 2015-2026 across 60 countries, along with detailed lifestyle, genetic, demographic, and related information.

Loading Dataset Code Block

url <- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shanicesmith98/data-607-assignments/refs/heads/main/week-1-assignment/lung_cancer_dataset.csv"
lung_cancer_patient_records <- read.csv(url)
head(lung_cancer_patient_records)
  Patient_ID Diagnosis_Year Diagnosis_Date            WHO_Region   Country Age
1    LC-0001           2020     2020-11-04       Western Pacific     China  46
2    LC-0002           2021     2021-12-09              Americas    Mexico  71
3    LC-0003           2017     2017-04-05       Western Pacific     Japan  53
4    LC-0004           2018     2018-11-24       Western Pacific Singapore  55
5    LC-0005           2024     2024-02-19       Western Pacific  Malaysia  54
6    LC-0006           2026     2026-01-01 Eastern Mediterranean      Iran  75
  Age_Group Gender Smoking_Status Cigarettes_Per_Day Years_Smoking Pack_Years
1     40-49 Female Current Smoker                 28            28       39.2
2     70-79   Male  Former Smoker                  5            34        8.5
3     50-59 Female   Never Smoked                  0             0        0.0
4     50-59   Male Current Smoker                 21            34       35.7
5     50-59   Male   Never Smoked                  0             0        0.0
6     70-79   Male   Never Smoked                  0             0        0.0
  Secondhand_Smoke Family_History Occupational_Hazard Air_Pollution_Exposure
1              Yes             No                  No               Moderate
2              Yes             No                  No                   High
3              Yes             No                  No                   High
4               No            Yes                  No               Moderate
5               No             No                 Yes                   High
6               No             No                  No                    Low
  Alcohol_Use  BMI BMI_Category Exercise_Frequency Chronic_Lung_Disease
1  No Alcohol 29.6   Overweight                Low                  Yes
2       Heavy 31.3        Obese           Moderate                   No
3    Moderate 25.8   Overweight                Low                   No
4  No Alcohol 25.3   Overweight                Low                  Yes
5  No Alcohol 32.0        Obese                Low                  Yes
6  No Alcohol 23.0       Normal               High                   No
  Asbestos_Exposure Radon_Exposure Previous_Cancer_History Risk_Factor_Count
1                No             No                      No                 2
2                No             No                     Yes                 3
3                No             No                      No                 2
4                No             No                      No                 2
5                No             No                     Yes                 4
6               Yes             No                      No                 1
  Genetic_Mutation Coughing Shortness_of_Breath Chest_Pain Coughing_Blood
1      No Mutation      Yes                 Yes        Yes             No
2             KRAS      Yes                 Yes         No             No
3             KRAS       No                  No        Yes            Yes
4      No Mutation      Yes                  No         No            Yes
5             KRAS      Yes                  No        Yes             No
6             EGFR      Yes                  No         No             No
  Fatigue Weight_Loss Wheezing Recurrent_Infections Swallowing_Difficulty
1      No         Yes       No                   No                   Yes
2     Yes          No      Yes                   No                   Yes
3     Yes          No       No                   No                    No
4     Yes         Yes      Yes                  Yes                    No
5     Yes          No      Yes                   No                   Yes
6     Yes          No       No                   No                    No
  Finger_Clubbing Symptom_Count Cancer_Type  NSCLC_Subtype Cancer_Stage
1              No             5       NSCLC Adenocarcinoma     Stage IV
2              No             5       NSCLC Adenocarcinoma      Stage I
3              No             3       NSCLC  Squamous Cell      Stage I
4              No             6       NSCLC Adenocarcinoma     Stage IV
5              No             5       NSCLC Adenocarcinoma    Stage III
6              No             2       NSCLC Adenocarcinoma     Stage II
  Tumor_Size_cm Metastasis Diagnosis_Method              Treatment
1           6.4        Yes              MRI      Chemo + Radiation
2           2.6         No           Biopsy Surgery + Chemotherapy
3           2.9         No   LDCT Screening                Surgery
4           7.0        Yes          CT Scan           Chemotherapy
5           5.8         No     Bronchoscopy          Immunotherapy
6           3.0         No          CT Scan                Surgery
  Survival_Months Survived
1               4       No
2              76      Yes
3              69       No
4               9       No
5               5      Yes
6              23       No

Subset # 1 Code Block

summary(lung_cancer_patient_records$BMI)
   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
  16.00   23.80   26.50   26.54   29.32   40.00 

Subset #1 Code Block

lung_cancer_patient_records <- lung_cancer_patient_records[, c("Patient_ID", "Diagnosis_Year", "Age_Group", "Risk_Factor_Count")]
head(lung_cancer_patient_records)
  Patient_ID Diagnosis_Year Age_Group Risk_Factor_Count
1    LC-0001           2020     40-49                 2
2    LC-0002           2021     70-79                 3
3    LC-0003           2017     50-59                 2
4    LC-0004           2018     50-59                 2
5    LC-0005           2024     50-59                 4
6    LC-0006           2026     70-79                 1

Conclusions

With this dataset, there’s quite a lot of information to gather from the patient records. I’d like to continue digging into the age group and gender demographics, since I wonder if there’s a correlation between which genders get diagnosed when or if lung cancer is more persistent in older populations after prolonged smoke exposure. Additionally, I’m curious to see if treatment varies in the past few years, as well as survival months, particularly with the global pandemic crisis of COVID 19 interfering with health care across various countries.