Table 1.
Causes of death in COPD; data from major clinical trials.
| Cause of death (% of trial participants) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean FE1 (L) | Cardio-vascular | Cancer | Respiratory (non-malignant) | Other | Trial Reference | Study size (n) | Deaths | Study follow-up |
| 2.75a | 22% | 54% | 8% | 16% | LHS III (13) | 5887 | 731 | up to 14.5 years |
| 2.54b | 39% | 39% | 11% | 11% | EUROSCOP (14) | 1277 | 18 | 3 years |
| 1.41a | 32%c | 32%c | 22% | 13%c | ISOLDE (15) | 751 | 68 | 3 years |
| 1.22a | 26% | 21% | 35% | 18% | TORCH (16, 17) | 6184 | 911 | 3+ years |
| 1.32a | 16% | 22% | 39% | 23% | UPLIFT (18, 19) | 5993 | 941 | 4 years + 30 days |
Data from large COPD trials suggest that the predominant causes of death in patients with COPD changes with increasing COPD severity, shifting from mostly cancer and cardiovascular deaths in patients with mild to moderate COPD to non-malignant respiratory deaths in patients with severe COPD. Where FEV1 is the forced expiratory volume in 1 second,
a
= post-bronchodilator value and
b
= pre-bronchodilator value.
c
Percent of deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease (32.4), cancer (32.4), and other causes (13.2%) were rounded down numerically in the table.