Occurrence of haemoptysis in patients with newly diagnosed lung malignancy.

AIM: To evaluate the correlation of the histological type of tumour and the bronchoscopic finding with the occurrence of haemoptysis in patients with pulmonary malignancy.

METHODS

In a retrospective study the records of all patients with proven lung tumours were reviewed with emphasis on histological type, location of endobronchial tumour, TNM stage in relation to the presence of haemoptysis in the patient's history.

RESULTS

Out of 536 patients with pulmonary malignancy, haemoptysis was present in 113, being more frequent in patients with NSCLC than SCLC and in patients with primary pulmonary tumour than those with pulmonary metastases (both p < 0.05). According to the location of endobronchial tumours, haemoptysis occurred in 31% of patients with a central process, in 13% of patients with intermedial and 12% with peripheral locations, respectively. According to the TNM classification the portion of patients with haemoptysis increased with tumour size.

CONCLUSION

Haemoptysis as the initial sign of pulmonary malignancy occurs mostly in patients with centrally located tumours. However, in individual patients the onset of bleeding is influenced by the histological type of tumour and the tumour size.