Comparitive incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma in subjects with centrilobular and panlobular emphysema.

Abstract

Twenty-one cases of centrilobular emphysema and nineteen cases of panlobular emphysema, all previously reported for morphological characteristics, were analyzed for the comparative incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma. Seven of the patients with centrilobular disease also had lung cancer, whereas, none of the patients with panlobular emphysema was so affected. These differences were statistically significant, suggesting a much closer tie between bronchogenic carcinoma and centrilobular emphysema than with panlobular disease. It was proposed that the frequent co-existence of the two conditions reflected separate effects of a common agent, i.e. tobacco smoke.