More needs to be done to raise awareness of the risk for lung cancer in people with COPD, according to the authors of a new study.
For the study, researchers led by the University of Glasgow and the University of Surrey interviewed men (n=17) and women (n=23) aged 40 to 87 years who had a diagnosis of COPD. The interviews covered symptom experience, interpretation, action, recognition, help seeking, evaluation and re-evaluation.
When prompted to think of what could cause changes to their chest symptoms, participants tended to draw on external factors such as smoking, the weather or age. Participants always drew on their experience of COPD when attributing symptoms beyond external factors. It did not seem to occur to them that a change in symptoms could have a cause other than COPD.
Participants were unaware that people with COPD are at increased risk of developing lung cancer and attributed to worsening symptoms to their COPD. While visits to health professionals were frequent, participants said the increased risk for lung cancer was not discussed. Many expressed surprise when the researcher informed them of the risk.
The authors concluded that awareness of the link between cancer and COPD needs to be improved among patients. However, they cautioned that this needs to be dealt with sensitively to avoid increased fatalism.
