Pneumothorax as a complication of radiation therapy for primary lung cancer.

A case of spontaneous pneumothorax complicating irradiation for bronchogenic carcinoma is presented. Pneumothorax developed in a collapsed lung caused by a central bronchogenic carcinoma. The cause is presumably secondary to either a bronchopleural fistula by tumour or sudden expansion of the lung following irradiation. Various tumours of the lung have been associated with spontaneous pneumothorax, Ausrralasian Radiology, Vol. XX, No. 4, December, 1976 339 MICHAEL R. HAY, KYUNG J. CHO AND HYUNCHUL SHIN including metastatic osteogenic sarcoma12, eosinophilic granuloma‘, teratoma”, other metastatic sarcomasJ, lvmphoma following radiation therapy‘, and pr-imary bronchoge&c carcinomas I .L : .i, 6.7 .LI, t o We have encountered a case of spontaneous pneumothorax complicating irradiation for bronchogenic carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first report in the English radiologic literature, and the second, in the English literature, of a case of spontaneous pneumothorax following radiation therapy €or proven bronchogenic carcinoma.