Increased expression of A Proliferation-inducing Ligand (APRIL) in lung leukocytes and alveolar epithelial cells in COPD patients with non small cell lung cancer: a possible link between COPD and lung cancer?

Table 1 The table shows the demographic and clinical characteristics of the healthy never smokers (NSC), healthy smokers (SC) and patients with COPD alone, NSCLC alone and both COPD and NSCLC. SC were defined as subjects that were current smokers at the time of the study or had quit smoking less than 1 year before the lung samples were obtained.

Demographics and clinical characteristics of the subjects
Characteristics	NSC (n = 3)	SC (n = 3)	COPD^a (n = 3)	COPD + Cancer (n = 3)	Cancer (n = 3)	P ^e
% males	33	33	75	75	0	N.S.
Age (yrs)	65 ± 22	63 ± 15	56 ± 7	75 ± 12	64 ± 9	P = 0.03^b
Pack-yr smoking^c	0	33 ± 23	45 ± 26	N/A	50 ± 10	P < 0.001
FEV₁ (% of predicted)^d	N/A	87 ± 11	33 ± 20	61^f	61 ± 7	P < 0.05

^a All COPD patients had forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity (FEV₁/FVC) < 0.7 whereas smokers without COPD and non-smoker controls had FEV₁/FCV > 0.7
^b The results for age, pack-year smoking history and FEV₁ % predicted, are expressed as mean ± SEM. The age of the patients with both COPD and NSCLC was significantly higher than that of the patients with COPD alone
^c The pack-year smoking histories of the COPD patients and SC groups were significantly different from those of NSC by design (P < 0.001 for both comparisons). The pack-yr smoking histories of the patients with COPD alone and NSCLC alone were significantly different from those of the SC and NSC
^d The FEV₁ % predicted and the FEV₁/FVC (not shown) in the COPD group were significantly different from that of the SC and NSC by design (P < 0.05 for both comparisons)
^e Statistical analyses included one-way ANOVA tests for continuous variables (age, FEV₁ % predicted and pack/years) followed by pair-wise comparisons using student’s t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests. The Chi-square test was used to analyze categorical variables. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant
^f The FEV₁ % predicted in the group of subjects with COPD and NSCLC was available only in 1 out of 4 subjects

ISSN: 2049-6958