Patients with combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) who are undergoing treatment for advanced lung cancer do not have a significantly worse prognosis than their counterparts with isolated idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs), report Japanese researchers.

Indeed, their study findings show that age, cancer performance status (PS), percentage predicted vital capacity (%VC; indicating pulmonary function) and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH; a marker of damaged pneumocytes) are the most significant predictors of poor prognosis, rather than the presence of emphysema or type of treatment given.

The results failed to confirm the team’s initial hypothesis that “CPFE may indicate significantly increased risk of lung cancer compared with either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or isolated pulmonary fibrosis alone.”