Background: Although postoperative morbidity and mortality rates in patients with lung cancer have decreased with advances in perioperative management, those patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remain at a high risk of complication and death. The frequency of postoperative morbidity and mortality rates in patients with lung cancer who have IPF have seldom been reported, however.
Methods: A retrospective study of 711 patients with lung cancer who had undergone surgical resection was conducted. Medical records were retrospectively compared for factors that might affect postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients with and without IPF.
Results: Of the 711 patients with lung cancer, 53 (7.5%) had IPF. The patients with IPF had pulmonary morbidity and mortality more frequently than those without IPF (26% versus 9.1%, P < 0.01; 8% versus 0.8%; P < 0.01). The 5-year survival was 43% among patients with IPF and 64.2% among those without IPF. Overall survival in patients with IPF was significantly lower than in those without IPF (P < 0.01), but disease-free survival was similar in the groups. Thirty-five percent of the deaths (8 of 23) were not related to lung cancer in those patients with IPF, compared with 18% (35 of 199) of the deaths among those without IPF (P = 0.048).
Conclusion: Patients with IPF showed markedly higher postoperative pulmonary morbidity and mortality than those without IPF. The survival rate of patients with IPF was lower because of pulmonary complications. Careful preoperative evaluation and perioperative management are required to achieve optimal surgical outcome in patients with lung cancer who have IPF.
Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.