XXXX : the importance of seeing a respiratory physician.

@entity1 @entity2 @entity204 @entity5
@entity1 with @entity2 present to and are managed by a variety of clinicians. In this study the effect of involvement by a respiratory physician on the diagnosis, staging, treatment and survival of a large unselected group of @entity2 @entity1 was investigated. The study population was derived from the Scottish Cancer Registry. A total of 3,855 @entity1 diagnosed during 1995 with @entity2 were studied. The data were validated and supplemented by references to medical records. The study found that a respiratory physician had been involved in the initial management of 2,901 (75.3%) @entity1 . These @entity1 were found more likely to have had the @entity5 diagnosis confirmed by histological methods and to have received active treatment with surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Survival, 1 yr after diagnosis was higher in @entity1 who saw a respiratory physician (24.4 versus 11.1%) and benefit was found to have remained 3 yrs after diagnosis (8.1 versus 3.7%). Although the @entity1 who had not seen a respiratory physician were generally older, and had more extensive disease, after correcting for age, stage and other prognostic factors, the relative hazard ratio of @entity204 for those not managed by a respiratory physician was 1.44. The data from this study supports the recommendations of recent @entity2 guidelines for the early involvement by a respiratory physician.
