Hammodi Adel, Al-Azem M Ali, Hanafy Ahmed, Nakkar Talal
King Fahad Specialist Hospital, P.O. Box 15215, Dammam 31444, Saudi Arabia.
Critical Care Department, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, P.O. Box 15215, Dammam 31444, Saudi Arabia.
Case Rep Crit Care. 2014;2014:231081. doi: 10.1155/2014/231081. Epub 2014 Nov 13.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Malignancy, prolonged recumbence, and chemotherapy are renowned risk factors for development of clinically significant PE. Cancer exerts a multitude of pathophysiological processes, for example, hypercoagulability and abnormal vessels with sluggish circulation that can lead to PE. One of the peculiar characteristics of tumor cells is their ability to reach the circulation and behave as blood clot-not a metastasis-occluding the pulmonary circulation. We present a case of fatal pulmonary embolism diagnosed histologically to be due to tumor cell embolism.