Can radiation exposure cause pulmonary fibrosis?

Among the causes of pulmonary fibrosis are pneumoconiosis, interstitial pneumonia, "mushroom lung001, parrot lung, humidifier lung, air-conditioner lung, drug-induced lung, radiation lung," and so on. There is also a category known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which specifically includes idiopathic fibrosis, familial idiopathic pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, acute interstitial pneumonia, desquamative interstitial pneumonia, nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia, and autoimmune pulmonary interstitial fibrosis.

Chest X-ray of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Among these, radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis attracts a great deal of attention. It mainly refers to receiving radiation therapy: when radiation is used to treat disease, it also damages normal tissues and cells within the radiation field, thereby causing inflammation. If this is relatively severe, the pulmonary interstitium readily develops into fibrosis. Radiation therapy with radiation is used for cancers in the chest, mainly lung cancer, breast cancer, esophageal cancer and other cancers.

Pulmonary fibrosis that develops as a result of radiation exposure readily forms a relatively large area of pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, when radiation therapy is used to treat cancers such as lung cancer, depending on factors such as physical constitution, there will be various individual responses. In fact, some patients with lung cancer and other cancers do not improve after radiation therapy, or their condition worsens again after a short period, and in some of them the cause is the development of pulmonary fibrosis.

Before and after treatment for pulmonary fibrosis

Because in terms of symptoms, lower respiratory tract cancers such as lung cancer and pulmonary fibrosis have almost identical symptoms, all presenting with dry cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, and occasional fever. If radiation therapy is used to treat breast cancer or esophageal cancer and the above symptoms appear, especially relatively obvious shortness of breath, then there is certainly a phenomenon and condition of pulmonary fibrosis.

If you have questions or need help, you can call 01062170649 13269852331