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A familial and personal history of cancer might be associated with a more aggressive cancerous disease. This study was carried out on 1277 consecutive lung cancer (LC) patients, seen from January 1989 to October 2002 in a single institution. A set of 31 clinical laboratory, radiological and pathological variables was recorded prospectively for all patients. In addition, both the number of first-degree blood-relatives with cancer (lung and non-lung cancers) and the personal history of previously cured cancers were noted. There were 368 patients (28.8% of the sample) who had one first-degree relative with cancer (112, 8.7% of the sample with LC), 100 (7.8%) had two first-degree relatives (six with LC) and 31 (2.4%) had three or more relatives affected (four with LC). In total, 1142 patients (89.4% of the sample) have never been treated for another cancer; the remaining 135 patients (10.6%) had already been diagnosed with a variety of tumours, including head and neck cancer (36 patients, 2.8%), bladder cancer (33 patients, 2.6%), colorectal cancer (24 patients, 1.9%), breast cancer (seven patients, 0.6%), melanoma (five patients, 0.4%), skin (five patients, 0.4%) and prostate cancer (five patients, 0.4%). Among the variables studied, none was found to be significantly associated with a personal and/or family history of cancer. Survival expectancy was similar among patients with or without a familial or personal history of cancer. A familial and a personal history of cancer are common features in LC, but are not of clinical significance.