[Acute pneumonia in oncology patients: problems of epidemiology]

Autopsy findings, analyzed retrospectively for 2564 cancer patients showed the presence of acute pneumonia in 47.43% of them (50.82% in males against 43.21% in females). When compared to noncancer controls, this difference proved significant. No correlations were noted between the incidence and extension of acute pneumonia and various sites of the tumor, between metastases, emergence and extension of the disease. Among pneumonia types focal, focal-confluent forms with involvement of the lower right lobe predominated. As for complications, pleurisy was the most common finding.