Lung Cancer and COPD: Opportunities to Leverage Lung Cancer Screening Programs to Improve COPD Diagnostics

Lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have many shared risk factors and not surprisingly, the two diseases often coexist. This article highlights the burden of COPD among patients with lung cancer in Ontario and explores opportunities to enhance lung cancer screening programs. We propose pursuing integrated strategies that incorporate new advances in artificial intelligence to improve disease diagnostics and navigate the complexity of caring for people with coexisting lung diseases. Evidence supports that this is a vulnerable population with unmet needs and poor outcomes that deserves urgent attention and action to promote earlier diagnosis and alleviate suffering.