"These findings suggest that the susceptibility patterns among women may be different compared with men," said Raghu Loganathan, MD, FCCP, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Bronx, NY. "Using the presence of COPD alone as a criterion to determine a patient's risk may miss women with lung cancer."
Dr. Loganathan and colleagues from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York used pulmonary function testing to compare the prevalence of COPD in 151 men vs 143 women who were newly diagnosed with lung cancer. Spirometry testing was used to determine pulmonary function. Patients were considered to have COPD when the FEV1/FVC ratio was lower than 70 percent; an FEV1/FVC ratio of greater than 70 was considered normal lung function. At the time of diagnosis, 72.8 percent of men presented with COPD compared with 52.4 percent of women. Among patients who smoked (87 percent), COPD occurred in 74.8 percent in men and 57.3 percent in women. Overall, smoking status and older age were strongly associated with COPD. Both former and current smokers were about 10 times more likely to have COPD compared with nonsmokers.
"The absence of COPD should not lower the risk in a female patient who is otherwise considered to be at increased likelihood for developing lung cancer," said Dr. Loganathan. "Physicians mus
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Contact: Jennifer Stawarz
jstawarz@chestnet.org
847-498-8306
American College of Chest Physicians
8-May-2006