How many people with emphysema do you know that also have lung cancer? Is this a common occurrence?

[srhawley]

[Brishe1]

hello

my husband had lung cancer 10 years ago and had lobectomy and been clear since. Now emphysema has caught up with him (he had given up smoking about a year before diagnosis). He has just been started on portable oxygen but within 10 days has had the conserver removed and increased to 3 lpm for pulmonary rehab because his levels weren't recovering quickly enough. What they don't know is that he works much harder at home and won't sit down!!!

[elja]

I'm not a medic but I'd think it would be quite common as some of the risk factors are the same (eg smoking). You won't hear about it all that often as the lung cancer so often kills (50% within about 6 months). I had lung cancer (2 separate ones) 3 years ago and was told I had some emphysema but that it wasn't bad I had my left lung removed and have recently been diagnosed with COPD in the remaining one as my symptoms have worsened.

[Dedalus]

I had part of one lung removed due to cancer, and then was told I had emphysema; as the lung size was reduced I'm sure this was a big contributing factor.

[Hidden]

Lots of people on the copd site here don't have lung cancer with their emphysema it seems.

[srhawley]

Thank you for your responses.