3. Radiation is a frequent cause of pulmonary fibrosis.
Patients who have breast or lung cancer show signs of pulmonary fibrosis several months or years after the initial treatment. The patient’s doctor needs to find out how long the person was exposed to radiation. When a person has cancer, he or she has to take radiation for a while to try to get rid of the mass in their bodies. The amount of radiation given to the person depends on how much their lungs were damaged.
Some cancer patients need a lot of radiation to help their cancer. Sometimes with radiation, chemotherapy is used. Chemotherapy sometimes doesn’t do too much good and can make other organs become damaged, such as the lungs. A person who is taking radiation may already have a lung disease and not be aware of it. A good cancer doctor will look at a person’s entire body to see what disease he or she may have.