Does cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis carry an increased risk of death from lung cancer?

摘要

It is widely believed among chest physicians that patients with cryptogenic fibronsing alveo- litis (CFA) are at substantially increased risk of death from lung cancer. This belief is largely the result of a follow up study by Tuner- Warwick and colleagues reported in 1980. Of 205 patients attending the Brompton Hospital between 1955 and 1973 with CFA, 20 (9.8/100) died form lung cancer; an excess relative risk of 14.1. This association is often taken to suggest that pulmonary fibrosis in itself entails a mechanism that predisposes to malignancy and that this in turn may explain the observed risk between other fibrotic diseases such as asbest- osis and silicosis and lung cancer.