COPD In African Americans Increases Risk of Lung Cancer

According to an article in HealthDay News, a new lung cancer risk assessment designed specifically for black Americans suggests that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a much greater lung cancer risk factor for blacks than for whites.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston analyzed data from 491 black lung cancer patients and 497 blacks without lung cancer to identify risk factors for the disease.

A comparison of risk factors for blacks with a previously established risk prediction model for whites revealed that black men with a prior history of COPD have a more than six-fold increased risk of lung cancer, similar to the increased risk associated with smoking. The lung cancer risk among black men with COPD is about two times greater than among white men with COPD.

The findings were published in the September issue of the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Read the rest of the article at AOL News.