Patients with IPF and lung cancer: diagnosis and management

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating fibrotic lung disease of unknown origin and pathogenesis with a steady increase in both incidence and mortality in recent years.1 Despite encouraging efficacy data for pirfenidone and nintedanib,2,3 neither of these compounds has been tested prospectively in the context of IPF coexisting with lung cancer, a frequent comorbid condition of IPF.4 Indeed, epidemiological evidence suggests that up to 22% of patients with IPF develop lung cancer, with a risk nearly five times as high as that of the general population.