Smokers With COPD Twice As Likely To Develop Lung Cancer

New findings published in the journal EBioMedicine reveal that smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer when compared to counterparts unaffected by the disease.

Researchers at Harvard University discovered that smokers dealing with the health issue are twice as likely to get small cell lung cancer (SCLC), otherwise known as the deadliest kind.

"This work suggests that we need to tease out the mechanisms by which COPD may increase lung cancer risk in smokers, and to conduct clinical trials to determine whether treating COPD in former and current smokers lessens that risk," David Christiani, senior author of the study and Elkan Blout Professor of Environmental Genetics at Harvard Chan School, said in a statement.

During the study, researchers analyzed data on 24 case-control studies from the International Lung Cancer Consortium, including information on 4,346 people with SCLC and 37,942 without the disease.

Statistics showed that SCLC holds a high relapse and mortality rate, with accounts of 15 to 18 percent of lung cancers worldwide. Though patients respond well to initial treatments, they often relapse within a year and those with SCLC live about 14 to 20 months following diagnosis on average. Furthermore, those with extensive disease live just about 9-11 months following diagnosis.

Study results of the analysis revealed that smokers with COPD had a 1.86-fold risk of SCLC when compared to SCLC smokers. Furthermore, researchers also found that COPD accounted for 8 percent of SCLC cases among smokers. 

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