Co-existing pulmonary tuberculosis and bronchogenic carcinoma. A report of 15 cases

Eighty patients with carcinoma of the lung have been treated at the Nova Scotia Sanatorium since 1940; in 15, coexisting active pulmonary tuberculosis was present. No characteristic clinical or roentgenological findings indicated that the tuberculous individual also had lung cancer. In four cases cancer was not diagnosed until the lung was examined by the pathologist. In the others a considerable interval elapsed before carcinoma was suspected.Only four patients with known cancer were considered suitable for thoracotomy. In three, an attempt at curative resection was made. One survived over seven years before accidental death; one is alive less than one year after operation; the third died as a result of the surgery. Bronchogenic carcinoma should be suspected in every tuberculous patient over the age of 50; diagnostic investigations should include bronchoscopy and cytological studies of bronchial secretion and sputum. Suspicion of carcinoma in any such patient constitutes an indication for early resection of the tuberculous disease.