fanos
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How common is Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) in Stage 4 adenocarcinoma with patients on chemotherapy? What are the causes? How can it be treated? What are possible short and long term effects on the lungs (and cancer).
Thank you
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Reply # - December 7, 2016, 06:39 PM
Hi fanos,
Hi fanos,
Dr. West has described cryptogenic pneumonia as "basically an official-sounding term for “lungs not working and we don’t know why”." There can be various causes for pneumonia; the most likely for chemotherapy to lead to it would be the lowered blood counts and increased susceptibility to infection. Treatment for such a patient might include antibiotics and possibly a break from chemotherapy to allow blood counts to rebound. That is the reason it is so important for chemo patients to try to avoid infection. Aside from the possible complications of the pneumonia itself (present in any patient but more concerning in one whose immune system is compromised), the main short-term cancer-related effect is the possible inability to continue treatment until the infection is cleared.
If the pneumonia responds to treatment, there might not be any long-term effects, although it would be important to closely monitor blood counts if chemo is resumed, in order to to lessen the chance of pneumonia recurring.
JimC
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