[Lung cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. An interdisciplinary challenge]

Lung cancer is a frequently occurring disease, particularly in the elderly; however, within the last 10 years the pharmaceutical treatment of lung cancer has been significantly improved. Due to a better understanding of the pathophysiological events and the identification of molecular subgroups of lung tumors, new therapeutic drugs have been developed that significantly prolong survival of patients with the respective molecular pattern. In particular immunotherapeutic agents, such as programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and programmed death 1 (PD1) antibodies have shown promising clinical results in a subgroup of lung cancer patients. Due to the high incidence of both lung cancer and rheumatic diseases they often occur together, which necessitates an interdisciplinary management. The success of improved therapy of lung cancer has led to a greater focus on the treatment of comorbidities; however, interventions into the immune system by immune checkpoint inhibitors can lead to new challenges when an autoimmune disease is simultaneously present. The possibility of an effective screening for lung cancer in the future also presents the prospect of an improvement in mortality, which raises the question of the optimal monitoring of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) under immunosuppressive therapy. The aim of this review is to discuss the interaction between lung cancer and RA with respect to the currently available data.