Encyclopedia of Cancer | Pneumonia

Description

One of the most common pulmonary complications affecting cancer patients, pneumonia is a potentially life-threatening inflammation of one or both lungs.

Causes

Serious side effects in cancer patients most often occur in the lungs and may indicate that the cancer is progressing or that the patient has developed a new problem. Both cancer and the therapies used to treat it can injure the lungs or weaken the immune system in ways that make cancer patients especially susceptible to the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other organisms that cause pneumonia.

Tumors and infections can block the patient's airway or limit the lungs' ability to rid themselves of fluid and other accumulated secretions that make breathing difficult. Other factors that increase a cancer patient's risk of developing pneumonia include:

...