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Prior emphysema, chronic bronchitis linked to increased risk for lung cancer
Individuals who were previously diagnosed with chronic bronchitis or emphysema appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancer, according to study results.
Also, the coexistence of bronchitis, anemia and pneumonia correlated more strongly with subsequent lung cancer than any of these individual diseases alone, results showed.
“Associations between various respiratory diseases and lung cancer have been shown in earlier studies, but few of these studies considered multiple respiratory diseases simultaneously,” researcher Ann Olsson, PhD, of the International Agency for Research in Cancer in Lyon, France, said in a press release.
Olsson and colleagues used data from the SYNERGY project — a pooled analysis of case-control studies pertaining to occupational exposures and lung cancer — to evaluate respiratory disease history. The analysis included 12,739 lung cancer cases and 14,934 controls from seven European and Canadian case-control studies.
The researchers used multivariate logistic regression models to analyze the associations between individual diseases and patterns of respiratory disease and lung cancer. They adjusted for co-occurring conditions, as well as age, study center, high-risk occupation status, education, smoking status, cigarette pack-years and time since smoking cessation. Prior respiratory diseases studied included chronic bronchitis, emphysema, tuberculosis, pneumonia and asthma.
After adjusting for respiratory diseases and smoking status, Olsson and colleagues observed a positive correlation among men between lung cancer and previous chronic emphysema (OR=1.5; 95% CI, 1.21-1.87) and bronchitis (OR=1.33; 95% CI, 1.2-1.48).
A pneumonia diagnosis within 2 or fewer years, but not longer, also was positively associated with lung cancer in men (OR =3.31; 95% CI; 2.23-4.7). Notably, the simultaneity of chronic bronchitis, emphysema and pneumonia was more strongly linked to lung cancer than any of the individual diseases.
Researchers noted an inverse relationship between asthma and lung cancer when asthma was diagnosed 5 or more years prior. This association was attenuated or eliminated when asthma was diagnosed less than 5 years before lung cancer. No association was discovered between previous tuberculosis and lung cancer.
“The variations in the associations between lung cancer and different patterns of previous respiratory diseases that we observed in our study may indicate differences in the underlying etiological mechanisms,” Olsson said in the release. “Better understanding of these associations may help guide the type and frequency of clinical surveillance needed for patients with each of these diseases.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant disclosures.