| Abstract: | Reviewing the epidemiological studies on coexistent pulmonarytubuerculosis and lung cancer since 1960, it was confirmed thatpatients with active pulmonary tuberculosis have a higher riskof dying from lung cancer or other malignancies, in spite ofa very high mortality from tuberculosis per se. Females showeda higher risk than males. An antagonistic hypothesis betweenthe above two diseases since 1854 seemed based on the factsthat tuberculosis patients had mostly died in young age groupsand had had little chance of surviving to cancer age groupsbefore the advent of modern treatments, and that the lack ofan adequate disease registration system might have caused afailure to reveal any association between the two diseases.Specific causative factors of the excess incidence of canceramong active pulmonary tuberculosis patients, however, haveso far not be clarified. |
