ASO Author Reflections: How Does Emphysema Contribute to Poor Prognosis After Lung Cancer Surgery?

PASTEmphysema is considered a poor prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.Emphysema often coexists with primary lung cancer, 1 and lung cancer arising from emphysema is often highly malignant. 2However, whether the poor prognosis of patients with lung cancer and emphysema is caused by the emphysema itself or the high-grade malignancy of lung cancer, which is observed more frequently in emphysematous lungs than in healthy lungs, remains unknown.