To analyze the clinical characteristics and examination results of the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis complicated with lung cancer in order to provide a scientific basis for early differential diagnosis of the disease.

The clinical data, laboratory tests and other data of 359 inpatients with pulmonary tuberculosis admitted to our hospital from 2013 to 2017 were collected for this study. The patients were divided into an observation group and a control group according to the presence or absence of lung cancer. The differences between the two groups in clinical data and laboratory tests were descriptively analyzed.

The mean age of the observation group (64 years) was older than that of the control group (52 years). There was no significant difference in the incidence of irritating dry cough, chest pain and tuberculosis symptoms between the two groups. The incidence of hemoptysis in the observation group was higher than that of the control group (χ²=8.021, P=0.004). The radiographic and clumping shadows in the imaging CT were lower in the observation group than in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). In the tumor marker detection, the levels of CEA were (12.38±0.39) ng/ml in the observation group and (4.02±1.23) ng/ml in the control group. The levels of NSE were (32.49±1.33) ng/ml in the observation group and (6.48±0.86) ng/ml in the control group. The levels of serum CEA, NSE, CA211 and SCC in the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.05).

Clinically, the elderly tuberculosis patients with a history of smoking and diabetes are high-risk population of lung carcinoma, and the chest CT and tumor marker test might reduce the misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis rate.