Prognosis of female patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

To study the risk of death and causes of death among female patients with tuberculosis (TB), a total of 1,083 female patients who diagnosed as having active pulmonary TB and newly registered into the Nagoya TB registry between 1979-1981 were followed up till the end of 1983. During follow-up period 138 deaths (12.7%) were observed, a significantly higher rate than expected from the general population. Observed deaths (O) from all types of cancer (O/E ratio = 2.5), lung (6.4) and colorectal cancers (5.0), were significantly higher than that which was expected (E). The number of deaths from TB was naturally high (O/E ratio = 40.0, p less than 0.001). Malignant lymphoma and multiple myeloma also showed high relative risk. The smoking rate among the patients was 14%, about the same as with the general population. Excessive high rates of death from lung cancer were observed both among smoking and non-smoking cancer patients. Non-smokers showed a high proportion (60%) of adenocarcinoma. The proportion of the use of antituberculous drugs during the past five years was not different between the lung cancer group and the non-lung cancer group. Patients who died from cirrhosis of the liver showed more frequent use of antituberculous drugs than the others. Factors causing excess incidence of colorectal cancer remain unknown. It was suggested that some immunologic disorders in TB patients may play some role in the development of cancer.