Lung cancer in patients with COPD: Incidence and predicting factors

Background: Little is known about the clinical factors associated with development of lung cancer in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Objective: To explore incidence, histological type and factors associated with development of lung cancer diagnosis in a cohort of patients with COPD. Methods: A cohort of 2507 patients without initial clinical or radiological evidence of lung cancer was followed for 62±38 months. At baseline, anthropometrics, smoking history, lung function and body composition were recorded. Time to diagnosis and histological type of lung cancer was then registered. Multivariate Cox analysis were used to explore factors associated with lung cancer diagnosis. Results: Incidence density of lung cancer was 16.7 cases/1000 person-years. The most frequent histological type was squamous cell carcinoma (44%). Conclusions: Incidence density of lung cancer is high in COPD patients and occurs more frequently in older patients with milder airflow obstruction (GOLD stages I and II), a DLCO