Repeated pneumonia attacks can turn into lung cancer

In daily clinical work, we often see that many lung cancer patients had a history of "pneumonia" before being diagnosed with lung cancer. Some patients may have had similar histories many times before further examination and confirmation of lung cancer. The initial symptoms of these patients were fever, cough, and sputum. Chest X-rays revealed "inflammatory infiltration" in the lungs. After taking "anti-inflammatory drugs", the symptoms and signs were alleviated until they disappeared. The patients and doctors did not further examine the cause of the inflammation. It was not until the patient repeatedly showed symptoms of pneumonia in the same part and could not be cured for a long time that further examination was carried out. As a result, the disease was delayed, which brought difficulties to further treatment.

So, what is pneumonia caused by lung cancer?

Lung cancer originates from the larger bronchus. Due to the growth of the tumor, the bronchus is blocked, and the distal secretions gather and cannot be effectively discharged, causing infection, leading to inflammation of the distal lung tissue, which is called obstructive pneumonia. Patients with obstructive pneumonia may show symptoms of lung infection such as fever, cough, and sputum, but it is different from ordinary pneumonia. First, compared with ordinary pneumonia, the symptoms of obstructive pneumonia are slower to onset, generally with a low fever of 37-38℃, and the patient's infection and poisoning symptoms are milder; secondly, patients with obstructive pneumonia respond poorly to antibiotic treatment, that is, the effect of "anti-inflammatory drugs" is slow, and it is difficult to completely dissipate the "inflammation" on the chest X-ray; thirdly, obstructive pneumonia is prone to recurrence, and the same part may show signs of infection again after a period of time after the last inflammation is controlled.

Therefore, for middle-aged and elderly patients, especially long-term and heavy smokers, if they have local lung infections with atypical symptoms, they should be alert to the possibility of lung cancer and should not be satisfied with the diagnosis of pneumonia alone. Repeated infection in the same area is more suggestive of the possibility of lung cancer or bronchial obstruction due to other reasons. Chest CT and fiberoptic bronchoscopy should be performed in time to make a clear diagnosis as soon as possible to avoid delaying treatment.