Retrospective Cohort Study on Association of Lung Cancer with Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

A retrospective cohort study among tuberculosis patients registered in Shanghai TB Registry since 1972 was carried out during 1987-89 for testing the hypothesis on association of lung cancer with pulmonary tuberculosis. A total of 30, 373 cases (male: 19, 709 and female: 10, 664) of pulmonary tuberculosis patients born before 1 January 1957 and resided in Shanghai urban were followed up until 1986. The SMRs for lung cancer were 1.38 and 2.73 in males and females, respectively, both of which were statistically significant. When the risk was adjusted by smoking, the adjusted SMRs for lung cancer were 1.72 (95% CI: 1.11-2.53) in males and 2.79 (95% CI: 1.79-4.14) in females. The elevated risk of lung cancer among tuberculosis patients was irrelevant to smoking. INH treatment and X-ray exposure can not be explained for this higher risk.