Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis and lung cancer

Lung cancer was found in 20 (9.8%) of 205 patients with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) or 12.9% of the 155 patients in this series followed to death. An excess relative risk of lung cancer of 14.1 was found in patients with CFA compared to the general population of comparable age and sex, allowing for the lengths of follow-up of the CFA patients. The relative risk for male smokers was (observed/expected) 15+1.06 = 14.2, and for female smokers (O/E) 2/0.3 = 6.7. Only one male and one female non-smoker had lung cancer. These data suggest that there is an excess risk of lung cancer not wholly accounted for by age, sex, or smoking habit. The distribution of histological types was not obviously different from that found in lung cancer without pulmonary fibrosis. Large opacities suggestive of lung cancer were present at the time of first hospital attendance for symptoms relating to CFA in four of the 20 patients. Finger clubbing was present in 19 (95%) compared with 116/185 (63%) of those so far not developing cancer. There were no other clinical differences at presentation. In particular, cancer was not found especially in those with longer survival from the onset of symptoms of CFA or with a greater initial radiographic change.