Clinicians often suspect that tuberculosis (TB) increases a person’s risk of developing lung cancer because of the ability of lung inflammation and fibrosis to induce genetic damage when they find that TB patients often develop cancer in the region of the original TB lesion in the distant future. However, direct evidence of specific genetic changes and disease has not been widely reported. Research published in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology of the International Lung Cancer Association suggests an association between tuberculosis and mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a type of gene mutation found in non-small cell lung cancer. The researchers concluded that there is an association between tuberculosis and EGFR mutations in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma is the most common form of lung cancer. Researchers studied 275 patients between June 1999 and January 2011. Of these patients, 191 had EGFR mutations. Their findings suggest that “there is a statistically significant association between old tuberculosis and scar cancer, a specific type of lung cancer associated with tuberculosis and mostly adenocarcinoma of the lung, and EGFR mutations, especially exon 19 deletion,” which is the most common form of EGFR mutation in tumors. In East Asia, such as Taiwan, China, a higher incidence of EGFR mutations in tumors was found, as was the prevalence of tuberculosis infection. The good news is that tumors with EGFR mutations have a 75% response rate when treated with EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This may be why, according to the study, “patients who had EGFR mutations or mutations in their exons survived longer (when treated with drugs) than those who did not have mutations”.