The results of a study out of Canada were used in several news stories yesterday. The study involved persons who had been diagnosed with pneumonia (thru an X ray) and who later had additional X rays to rule out lung cancer. From the total sample of persons, they tracked new cases of lung cancer, at three time points. They then looked at who was diagnosed with lung cancer to see if there was a statistical difference between those who were and were not .
From this, they could make recommendations on how to treat future pneumonia patients. In other words, who would have a perceived benefit that was greater than the risk in having follow up X rays.
The study found a correlation between age (+ 50), gender (male) and smoking status (+). None of this is new - and the amount of lung cancer cases that were diagnosed in the five years was only 172 out of nearly 3400 cases.
Smoking is already associated with both pneumonia and other lung ailments so some scientists and physicians feel that smokers with pneumonia should always be reassessed for lung cancer after 90 days. (I am ambivalent about this - and did not see this in the actual research abstract)
The study authors only recommended that persons over age age of 50 have the additional X Ray.
A fellowr blogger noted (quite smartly) that anyone who gets pneumonia should discuss this with their doctor because generally healthy people do NOT get pneumonia. Lifestyle factors can cause the illness - like smoking.
Here is the abstract to the research study.
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