Pneumonia: Be alert to underlying malignancy in follow up of pneumonia...

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7551.1214

BMJ 2006;332:1214 (20 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7551.1214

Letter

Pneumonia

Be alert to underlying malignancy in follow up of pneumonia...

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR—Hoare and Lim recommend a repeat chest radiographat six weeks for patients with pneumonia.¹ However several studieshave shown a high rate (5-13%) of underlying malignancy in heavysmokers who are older than 50 but do not have obvious pointersto a neoplasm.^{2 3} Consideration of early bronchoscopy in thisgroup may avoid the delay in diagnosis that is inherent in waitingfor six weeks.

Iain R Crossingham, specialist registrar

Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB irc@doctors.org.uk

Rebecca Grue, specialist registrar (geriatric medicine)

Burnley General Hospital, Burnley BB10 2PQ

Competing interests: None declared.

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