Liu X, et al. - Researchers sought to determine the potential differences in clinicopathologic characteristics of lung cancer (LC) patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) vs LC patients without systemic connective tissue disorder (CTD). They compared both of these patient groups and also performed an intra-group comparison in LC patients with RA in order to examine the impact of smoking on the clinicopathologic characteristics. Both patient groups demonstrated no statistically significant differences in the distribution of age, gender, smoking status, histology type, and tumor location. Being diagnosed at an advanced stage, having a poorer ECOG PS score were more likely to be seen in LC patients with RA vs LC patients without CTD. Less likelihood for receiving surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapy was reported for LC patients with RA.