Ten patients with concomitant pulmonary mycobacteriosis and cancer who had beenadmitted during the past nine years, were studied clinically.
Five cases had both active pulmonary mycobacteriosis and lung cancer on admission. Inthese patients, the tuberculous lesions were limited or moderate, and antituberculouschemotherapy was mostly effective.
The tuberculous lesions were detected only at autopsy in two patients with lung cancer.Though the lesions were limited with negative sputum culture, it was considered that thetuberculous lesions could develop more advanced, if the patients survived longer.
Antituberculous chemotherapy was not effective in two out of three patients withconcomitant pulmonary mycobacterial infections and the cancer of organs other than lung, probably due to deteriorated host defence mechanisms under terminal cancer status.
Median survival time of seven lung cancer patients with mycobacteriosis was 16.5months, which was 8 months longer than the mean survival time of conservatively treatedlung cancer patients in our hospital.
