The scientific challenge of combining the tuberculosis process and lung cancer has not been fully disclosed in modern literature. This primarily involves the low incidence of these two pathologies at the same time. This may contribute to difficulties in the qualitative and timely diagnosis of these diseases. Tuberculosis hides the radiological manifestations of a malignant tumor for a long time that contributing to its progression and the development of high mortality among patients. Lung cancer facilitates hemato- and lymphogenous spread of a specific pathogen. As an example, a clinical case of simultaneous occurrence of pulmonary tuberculosis and lung cancer which was observed in the patient admitted to the Department for patients with respiratory tuberculosis of Nizhny Novgorod regional clinical tuberculosis dispensary, was presented. We concluded that compliance with the algorithm of the mandatory diagnostic minimum when patients admitted to the general healthcare network, as well as compliance with the rules for population screening, especially among people over 45, will minimize the risks of delayed diagnosis in case of coexistence of respiratory tuberculosis and lung cancer.

Timely detection of tuberculosis among the population, both pulmonary and, especially, extrapulmonary, is a priority task of domestic and foreign health care. Often, extrapulmonary forms of tuberculosis mask various other pathologies. For example, laryngeal tuberculosis may be masked as a malignant neoplasm or occur as a nonspecific lesion. The purpose of the article is to attract the attention of medical specialists to the problem of diagnosing tuberculosis on the example of a clinical case of a patient with combined pulmonary and laryngeal tuberculosis. In accordance with the obtained clinical, laboratory and instrumental data, we concluded that when patients are admitted to a non-specialized medical organization with complaints from the larynx (dysphonia, aphonia) or oropharyngeal organs (dysphagia), complete diagnostic minimum is required including chest X-ray, complete blood count, otolaryngology consultation and microbiological monitoring (sputum microscopy) for the purpose of integrated examination of the patient and further routing to antituberculous institution. An example is given of successful treatment of a patient with a combination of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (laryngeal tuberculosis) identified due to the presence of symptoms in the larynx.

The article provides information about a prominent Nizhny Novgorod surgeon, the first head of the tuberculosis department of the Gorky Medical Institute named after S.M. Kirov (now Privolzhsky Research Medical University) Ivan Semenovich Nikolaev. Ivan Semyonovich Nikolaev went through the horrors of the Great Patriotic War, worked with prominent doctors of his time (L.V. Bogush, B.A. Korolev, S.S. Yudin), achieved unprecedented success in the surgical treatment of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, received the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences after defending the candidate's thesis (for the first time in the history of the Gorky Medical Institute named after S.M. Kirov) due to the uniqueness and fundamental nature of the scientific materials presented. Professor Ivan Semyonovich Nikolaev successfully combined pedagogical, scientific and medical work with great organizational and social work. For many years, I.S. Nikolaev was a member of the board of the All-Union and All-Russian Society of Phthisiologists, for more than 20 years he was the Chairman of the Board of the Gorky Scientific Medical Society of Phthisiologists, a member of the editorial board of the journal Problems of Tuberculosis. Many times Ivan Semyonovich Nikolaev represented the Nizhny Novgorod phthisiology and medical institute at the All-Union and All-Russian congresses and conferences of phthisiologists was a member of their presidiums. In 1988, Ivan Semyonovich Nikolaev, due to his age, left the position of head of the tuberculosis department and worked as a consultant professor for several years, and then retired. In recent years, he lived in his native village Paustovo (Vyaznikovsky district, Vladimir region). In 1999, Ivan Semyonovich died.