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Background: Lung cancer is one of the fatal cancers in Iran while 12% of the mortalities are related to this cancer in the country. This active hospital-based study was undertaken to determine the occurrence of lung cancer in Fars Province, southern Iran. 
 Methods: Data including face-to-face interview with patients and a survey of their medical and demographic records in relation to all invasive cancers were actively collected from 2002 to 2007 from four university hospitals. 
 Results: Among 10800 cancer cases registered during this period, 238 cases were lung cancer, including 76.1% male and 23.9% female patients. 66.1% of the lung cancer cases were smokers. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 58.3 years which was higher in males compared to females (pv<0.001). There were also more smokers among males than females (74.6% vs 38.7%, pv<0.001). The most common histological type of lung cancer was squamous cell carcinoma followed by adenocarcinoma. 
 Conclusion: Our results showed a higher prevalence of lung cancer in males, age group of 46-65, smokers and moderate and low socioeconomic classes while the most common type was squamous cell carcinoma. It seems that these findings may play a key role for authorities in health planning programs.