“…Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), in particular, has an increasing incidence, and can be classified as a life-threatening condition, associated with a median survival of 3-4 years, comparable to that of patients suffering from malignant diseases (4). As reported in a study evaluating more than 9,000 patients with IPF in the US, comorbidities in IPF are frequent and associated with an increased mortality (4,5). Moreover, an increased risk for the development of lung cancer (LC) was shown in a recent study evaluating comorbidities of more than 5,000 patients with IPF in Japan, with a prevalence of 3.7% for those hospitalized with IPF (6).…”