Clinical course of pulmonary embolism in lung cancer patients

Although lung cancer is the most common malignancy diagnosed in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), data regarding pulmonary embolism (PE) in lung cancer patients are limited.

To investigate the clinicoradiological features, clinical course and survival of lung cancer patients with PE.

We performed a retrospective case-control study investigating the clinical course and survival of 40 lung cancer patients with PE (PE group). The control group (non-PE group) consisted of 80 lung cancer patients without VTE, treated during the same period.

Adenocarcinoma (45.0%, n = 18) was the most common histological type of lung cancer and when PE was diagnosed, the majority of the lung cancer patients were in stages IIIB (37.5%, n = 15) and IV (47.5%, n = 19). Thirty-four patients (85.0%) were diagnosed with PE within 12 months of the diagnosis of lung cancer. The median survival from the diagnosis of PE was 3.5 months in the PE group, but the survival rates revealed no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.249). In both groups, the most common cause of death was lung cancer progression (76.9 and 80.3%, respectively), followed by chemotherapy-related septic shock (19.2 and 16.7%, respectively).

In lung cancer patients, PE may not be the main cause of death, but one of the various complications of lung cancer, despite suggesting a poor prognosis.