Table 1.

Common causes of respiratory symptoms or disease in cancer patients

Infectious

Lower respiratory tract illness (e.g., pneumonia)

Septic emboli from bacteremia

Sepsis

Aspiration pneumonia

Aspiration pneumonitis

Post-obstructive pneumonia (particulary in setting of an obstructing malignancy)

Cardiac

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI)

Congestive heart failure (CHF) with pulmonary edema

Chronic

Acute e.g., due to AMI or acute valvular insufficiency

Cardiac toxicity from prior therapy, including

Cyclophosphamide

Mitoxantrone

Anthracyclines

Paclitaxel and docetaxel

Trastuzumab

Mediastinal or total body irradiation

Pulmonary

Noncardiogenic pulmonary edema

Volume overload

Capillary leak (e.g., sepsis)

Pulmonary embolism (particularly with infarction)

Fat embolism

Transfusion-related lung injury

Alveolar hemorrhage

Idiopathic eosinophilic pneumonia

ARDS

Preexisting pulmonary disease (e.g., COPD, bronchiectasis)

Preexisting medical disease (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis)

Medication related (e.g., amiodarone)

Oncological

Metatstatic malignancy

Primary lung malignancy

Leukemic infiltrates

Treatment-Related Pulmonary Toxicity

Radiation-induced pneumonitis and fibrosis

Medication related, including

Bleomycin

Busulfan

Chorambucil

Cyclophosphamide

Gefitinib

Methotrexate

Nitrosoureas

Procarbazine

Rituximab

Taxanes

mTor inhibitor-associated pneumonitis

Others

Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) (bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia, BOOP)

After stem cell or bone marrow transplantation

Idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (idiopathic interstitial pneumonitis)

Graft versus host disease (GVHD)