Luke Flatt is an elderly married man who had a previous history of aspirating some peanut husks when he was young. he used to smoke but quit 10 years ago, 5 years before he started having shortness of breath initially on exertion which has now worsened to dyspnoea on mild exertion. he also has chronic productive cough which is painful.
the above history is does not indicate a neoplasm. although he has a prolonged history of smoking, which has been associated with lung cancer, he could be suffering from Chronic Obstructive Airway disease which also has a history of prolonged smoking as a common denominator. also, it has been shown that quitting smoking for 10 years and above reduces the risk of lung cancer by one third, so he is not so much at risk of lung cancer as he was 10 years ago when he quit smoking.
The age of the patient is important in this case because COPD leads to progressive irreversible deterioration of lung. at such old age, the lung function would definitely have deteriorated to an advanced stage. Therefore the prognosis is poor.
Luke Flatt is an elderly man that is suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The risk factors being the prolonged history of smoking cigarette. Although, he quit smoking about 10 years ago, the progressive damage to his lung parenchyma is irreversible. Also, because of his old age, the prognosis of his illness is bad.
References
Stop Smoking (2012). Smoking - Lung Cancer facts. Stop Smoking Programs. http://www.stop-smoking-programs.org/lung-cancer.html
