Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow They’re RelatedKnee Pain as a SymptomDiagnosisTreatment
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
How They’re Related
Knee Pain as a Symptom
Diagnosis
Treatment
Knee pain and lung cancer may not be what you commonly think of when joint pain symptoms occur, but knee pain can be a sign of lung cancer in very rare instances.
It’s common to see a healthcare provider for knee pain, but you may want to discuss acancer screeningeven if you don’t have a cough, weight loss, or typical signs of lung cancer. That’s especially true for people athigh risk of lung cancerbecause ofsmoking, genetics, environmental exposure, or even theirmale gender at birth.
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How Is Knee Pain Related to Lung Cancer?
Knee pain and lung cancer may be linked in a few ways. The pain may occur if a tumor metastasizes, or spreads, to connective tissue areas, or it may be the result of unusual complications associated with lung cancer. This is how lung cancer can spread to the knee.
Metastases
Lung cancer is most commonly associated with metastases to thebrain,lymph nodes,liver, andadrenal glands, but it can spread almost anywhere, including thesynovialtissue. This is a type of connective tissue in the protective membranes surrounding the body’s joints.
Whenlung cancermetastasizes to these areas of the body, it is usually alung adenocarcinoma. The joints most likely to be affected are the knees.
When the knee is impacted in this way, symptoms may include:
Surgery to remove the entire tumor is usually the first course of treatment for cancer in the synovial tissue. Chemotherapy may also be recommended to increase the chances of eliminating all of the malignant cancer cells.
Paraneoplastic Syndromes
People with lung, ovarian, lymphatic, or breast cancer are at risk of developingparaneoplastic syndrome, a rare complication in which cancerous tumors cause organ or tissue damage that can trigger the production or release of hormones or other chemicals. Paraneoplastic syndromes affect approximately 10% of all people with lung cancer.
Paraneoplastic syndromes are thought to happen when cancer-fighting antibodies or white blood cells (known as T cells) mistakenly attack normal cells, especially in the nervous system or the endocrine (hormone) system.
Hypertrophic Pulmonary Osteoarthropathy(HPOA)
Signs of HPOA (sometimes called HOA) may include:
Once the tumor is removed, the knee pain or other symptoms related to HOA should improve. Treatment may also include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) orbisphosphonates, medications typically prescribed to treatosteoporosis.
Knee Pain as a Symptom of Lung Cancer
Both monoarthritis (pain in one joint) andpolyarthritis(pain in multiple joints) have been identified as possible signs of lung cancer. Sometimes, these symptoms can be misdiagnosed. Knee pain can come and go,
The connection between knee pain and lung cancer can easily be missed because the rate of arthritis problems occurring with lung cancer is very low. For example:
If you have lung cancer, your knee pain is more likely to be related to other causes and is rarely a symptom of your lung cancer.
If you haverheumatoid arthritis(RA), your knee pain is likely related to your arthritis. However, you should discuss your risk of lung cancer with your healthcare provider. Those with RA are eight times more likely to develop interstitial lung disease, which puts you at risk for lung cancer.
If you have lung cancer and knee pain, your healthcare provider will first look for the obvious causes of joint disease or injury.
The connection between knee pain and lung cancer may only be found if your pain persists or if your discomfort spreads to other joints.
If you haven’t beendiagnosed with lung cancer, you might get tested for any of the following reasons:
Computed tomography (CT) scanof the chest and abiopsy of the lungmay be ordered to confirm a cancer diagnosis.
Treatment Options
If lung cancer is identified as the cause of your knee pain, your treatment will focus on removing or reducing the size of your tumor via surgery,chemotherapy, and/orradiation.
The type of surgery and the course of chemotherapy and radiation will depend on where the tumor is located, its size, and its type.
Your healthcare provider may also prescribe steroids, high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin, or irradiation.
Summary
If you’re at high risk for lung cancer and have persistent knee pain, it might be worth discussing a screening with your doctor, especially if typical treatments aren’t helping. While this connection is rare, signs like joint pain, finger clubbing, or unresponsive inflammation can sometimes lead doctors to investigate further with an X-ray or CT scan.
10 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Levine HR, Tingle E, Carter B, Dockery D.Synovial metastasis from lung cancer.Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2013;26(1):25-7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080%2F08998280.2013.11928905Outani H, Kakunaga S, Hamada K, et al.Favorable outcomes of localized synovial sarcoma patients with a high utilization rate of neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy.Mol Clin Oncol. 2019;11(2):151-156. doi:10.3892/mco.2019.1863Kanaji N, Watanabe N, Kita N, et al.Paraneoplastic syndromes associated with lung cancer.World J Clin Oncol. 2014;5(3):197-223. doi:10.5306%2Fwjco.v5.i3.197National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Paraneoplastic syndromes information page.Kumari P, Yeung P, Medani A, Kiani AN.Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy: an unusual presentation.Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2018;2(1):rky009. doi:10.1093/rap/rky009Syniachenko O, Іermolaieva I, Stepko P, Verzilov S, Potapov Y.Paraneoplastic rheumatoid-like arthritis associated with lung cancer.Pain Joints Spine.2020;10(1).doi:10.22141/2224-1507.10.1.2020.199724Fang YH, Hsu CC, Hsieh MJ, Hung MS, Tsai YH, Lin YC.Impact of hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy on patients with lung cancer.Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:5173-5177. doi:10.2147/ott.s139558Kakutani T, Hashimoto A, Tominaga A, et al.Related factors, increased mortality and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.Mod Rheumatol. 2020;30(3):458-464. doi:10.1080/14397595.2019.1621462Oh KS, Lee SY, Min SH, Ryu C, Shin HY.Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in renal cell carcinoma - A case report.Anesth Pain Med. 2021 Jul;16(3):290-294. doi:10.17085/apm.20092Cancer.org.Signs and Symptoms of Osteosarcoma.
10 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Levine HR, Tingle E, Carter B, Dockery D.Synovial metastasis from lung cancer.Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2013;26(1):25-7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080%2F08998280.2013.11928905Outani H, Kakunaga S, Hamada K, et al.Favorable outcomes of localized synovial sarcoma patients with a high utilization rate of neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy.Mol Clin Oncol. 2019;11(2):151-156. doi:10.3892/mco.2019.1863Kanaji N, Watanabe N, Kita N, et al.Paraneoplastic syndromes associated with lung cancer.World J Clin Oncol. 2014;5(3):197-223. doi:10.5306%2Fwjco.v5.i3.197National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Paraneoplastic syndromes information page.Kumari P, Yeung P, Medani A, Kiani AN.Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy: an unusual presentation.Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2018;2(1):rky009. doi:10.1093/rap/rky009Syniachenko O, Іermolaieva I, Stepko P, Verzilov S, Potapov Y.Paraneoplastic rheumatoid-like arthritis associated with lung cancer.Pain Joints Spine.2020;10(1).doi:10.22141/2224-1507.10.1.2020.199724Fang YH, Hsu CC, Hsieh MJ, Hung MS, Tsai YH, Lin YC.Impact of hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy on patients with lung cancer.Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:5173-5177. doi:10.2147/ott.s139558Kakutani T, Hashimoto A, Tominaga A, et al.Related factors, increased mortality and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.Mod Rheumatol. 2020;30(3):458-464. doi:10.1080/14397595.2019.1621462Oh KS, Lee SY, Min SH, Ryu C, Shin HY.Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in renal cell carcinoma - A case report.Anesth Pain Med. 2021 Jul;16(3):290-294. doi:10.17085/apm.20092Cancer.org.Signs and Symptoms of Osteosarcoma.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Levine HR, Tingle E, Carter B, Dockery D.Synovial metastasis from lung cancer.Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2013;26(1):25-7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080%2F08998280.2013.11928905Outani H, Kakunaga S, Hamada K, et al.Favorable outcomes of localized synovial sarcoma patients with a high utilization rate of neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy.Mol Clin Oncol. 2019;11(2):151-156. doi:10.3892/mco.2019.1863Kanaji N, Watanabe N, Kita N, et al.Paraneoplastic syndromes associated with lung cancer.World J Clin Oncol. 2014;5(3):197-223. doi:10.5306%2Fwjco.v5.i3.197National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Paraneoplastic syndromes information page.Kumari P, Yeung P, Medani A, Kiani AN.Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy: an unusual presentation.Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2018;2(1):rky009. doi:10.1093/rap/rky009Syniachenko O, Іermolaieva I, Stepko P, Verzilov S, Potapov Y.Paraneoplastic rheumatoid-like arthritis associated with lung cancer.Pain Joints Spine.2020;10(1).doi:10.22141/2224-1507.10.1.2020.199724Fang YH, Hsu CC, Hsieh MJ, Hung MS, Tsai YH, Lin YC.Impact of hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy on patients with lung cancer.Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:5173-5177. doi:10.2147/ott.s139558Kakutani T, Hashimoto A, Tominaga A, et al.Related factors, increased mortality and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.Mod Rheumatol. 2020;30(3):458-464. doi:10.1080/14397595.2019.1621462Oh KS, Lee SY, Min SH, Ryu C, Shin HY.Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in renal cell carcinoma - A case report.Anesth Pain Med. 2021 Jul;16(3):290-294. doi:10.17085/apm.20092Cancer.org.Signs and Symptoms of Osteosarcoma.
Levine HR, Tingle E, Carter B, Dockery D.Synovial metastasis from lung cancer.Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2013;26(1):25-7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080%2F08998280.2013.11928905
Outani H, Kakunaga S, Hamada K, et al.Favorable outcomes of localized synovial sarcoma patients with a high utilization rate of neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy.Mol Clin Oncol. 2019;11(2):151-156. doi:10.3892/mco.2019.1863
Kanaji N, Watanabe N, Kita N, et al.Paraneoplastic syndromes associated with lung cancer.World J Clin Oncol. 2014;5(3):197-223. doi:10.5306%2Fwjco.v5.i3.197
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Paraneoplastic syndromes information page.
Kumari P, Yeung P, Medani A, Kiani AN.Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy: an unusual presentation.Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2018;2(1):rky009. doi:10.1093/rap/rky009
Syniachenko O, Іermolaieva I, Stepko P, Verzilov S, Potapov Y.Paraneoplastic rheumatoid-like arthritis associated with lung cancer.Pain Joints Spine.2020;10(1).doi:10.22141/2224-1507.10.1.2020.199724
Fang YH, Hsu CC, Hsieh MJ, Hung MS, Tsai YH, Lin YC.Impact of hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy on patients with lung cancer.Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:5173-5177. doi:10.2147/ott.s139558
Kakutani T, Hashimoto A, Tominaga A, et al.Related factors, increased mortality and causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.Mod Rheumatol. 2020;30(3):458-464. doi:10.1080/14397595.2019.1621462
Oh KS, Lee SY, Min SH, Ryu C, Shin HY.Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in renal cell carcinoma - A case report.Anesth Pain Med. 2021 Jul;16(3):290-294. doi:10.17085/apm.20092
Cancer.org.Signs and Symptoms of Osteosarcoma.
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