Lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer are closely related disease states, and both are caused by smoking. Patients with airflow obstruction have a much greater Likelihood of having lung cancer than those with normal airflow, with all other risk factors being equal. Heavy smokers with airflow obstruction should be monitored for the presence of lung cancer by annual chest x-rays and sputum cytology. When the cancer can be detected early (i.e. in situ or stage I), the cure rate equals that of many other cancers. It is time to abandon the incorrect notion that lung cancer screening is futile; patients at highest risk are candidates for the same kind of cancer surveillance as are patients at risk of breast, prostate, uterine, and colon cancers.