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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Jun 8.
Published in final edited form as: Expert Rev Respir Med. 2022 Jun 8;16(5):519–528. doi: 10.1080/17476348.2022.2085091

Figure 1. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and lung cancer have many similarities.

Figure 1.

Lung cancer is classified into different subtypes, some of which are more frequently seen in IPF patients. There are many similarities between lung fibrosis and cancer. For example, high-risk factors for both diseases include aging, poor air, high-risk occupations, and smoking. IPF patients, especially with factors such as cigarette smoking and gender (male), are likely to develop lung cancer. These risk factors would alter DNA methylation status (hyper- or hypo-methylation), which would affect gene expression, and change the recruitment of methyl-binding proteins (MBD), and transcriptional factors (TF), which all contribute to the mechanisms underlying fibrogenesis and carcinogenesis. Altered DNA methylation can be targeted pharmacologically, used as diagnostic biomarkers, and used to monitor disease progression (see text for details).