Lung Cancer – Pulmonary Embolism

Transcript

Pulmonary embolism is common in lung cancer patients with a rough incidence of 3.7%. Pulmonary embolism occurs when a clot has formed somewhere else in your body, usually your legs or inside the pelvis and it traveled via the venous system to the right side of the heart and then into the lungs, blocking parts of the pulmonary artery. Pulmonary embolisms can be small or large, causing the area of the lung that no longer receives blood supply to suffer from lack of oxygen.

Glossary:

Clot (blood clot) – a mass of solid, congealed blood

Pulmonary artery – a blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the lungs

Venous system – system of veins that brings blood to the heart from the body