Association of Lung cancer with Pneumonia and Chlamydia pneumoniae infection

Authors

Johnny Zakhour MD, Washington Health InstituteFollow
Daniel Muller, Washington Health InstituteFollow
Alex Glynn, University of LouisvilleFollow
Jose Bordon, George Washington University Medical SchoolFollow

Funder

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Abstract

Introduction: The degree of association and type of causal versus non-causal relationship between pneumonia and lung cancer (LC) are evolving discussions. We reviewed English publications on the degree of association between pneumonia and subsequent LC.

Methods: We searched the PubMed database using key words for pneumonia, LC, and chlamydia infection. We selected peer-reviewed studies of patients with pneumonia and LC. Case reports and other literature reviews were excluded from this review.

Results: Five studies examined the incidence and/or risk of LC for a total of 415,750 patients, and four studies examined cases with Chlamydia pneumoniae chronic infection at the time of diagnosis of LC for a total of 1,467 patients. The overall risk and/or incidence of LC after pneumonia was from 2.3% to 10% for a median follow-up ranging from 109 days to 4.2 years. Three studies reported current tobacco smoking status, which ranged from 27.7% to 45% among those with LC. A history of prior malignancy was reported in 22.5% of patients with LC. Chlamydia IgA and LC were statistically non-significantly associated regardless of the age of the patients. In one study, Chlamydia HP-60 IgG > 1:50 was associated with significantly increased odds of LC in two respective models (ORs of 1.34 [95% CI 1.06–1.69] and 1.30 [95% CI 1.02–1.67]). A fourth study reported C. pneumoniae IgA > 64 titers to be 58%, 29%, and 5.5% among patients with LC, without LC, and healthy blood donors, respectively.

Conclusions: The incidence of LC was reported to range from 2.3% to 10.3% following an episode of pneumonia. There is limited evidence of the association of chronic Chlamydia infection with LC, and Chlamydia could be a causal cofactor of LC.

DOI

10.55504/2473-2869.1227

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Zakhour, Johnny MD; Muller, Daniel; Glynn, Alex; and Bordon, Jose (2021) "Association of Lung cancer with Pneumonia and Chlamydia pneumoniae infection," The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55504/2473-2869.1227
Available at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jri/vol6/iss1/8