Association Between Interstitial Lung Disease and Outcomes After Lung Cancer Resection

A retrospective cohort analysis of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database of 128,723 patients—who underwent pulmonary resection for non-small cell lung cancer between 2009 and 2019—identified 1,873 (1.5 percent) with interstitial lung disease. Patients with interstitial lung disease were more likely to smoke (90 percent vs 85 percent, P < .001), have pulmonary hypertension (6 percent vs 1.7 percent, P < .001), diffusion capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide < 40 percent (11 percent vs 4 percent, P < .001), and underwent more sublobar resections (34 percent vs 23 percent, P < .001) compared with patients without interstitial lung disease. Patients with interstitial lung disease had increased postoperative mortality (5.1 percent vs 1.2 percent; odds ratio, 3.94; 95 percent CI, 3.09-5.01; P < .001) and composite morbidity and mortality (13.2 percent vs 7.4 percent, P < .001).