PEOPLE suffering from a group of smoking-related lung diseases are less likely to die if they take a particular drug every day, a study has found.

The study said this drug is the only one shown to have improved the survival rate of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In the four-year study, patients who took the drug, called tiotropium, had their risk of dying reduced by 16 per cent, compared to those who did not.

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