Is albumin transfusion needed for pleural effusion in advanced lung cancer?

In patients with advanced lung cancer, if the pleural effusion is serious, the patient’s serum albumin level is low, and the liver function and kidney function are normal, albumin can be infused to improve the symptoms. Patients with advanced stage of lung cancer may have hypoalbuminemia due to high consumption of tumor or insufficient nutrition of the patient, resulting in pleural effusion, and a large amount of pleural effusion may lead to respiratory difficulty of the patient. If it is confirmed that the patient’s serum albumin level is low and liver and kidney functions are normal after laboratory examination, albumin can be infused to improve the symptom of hypoalbuminemia and enhance the patient’s immunity. However, if the serum albumin level of patients with advanced lung cancer is normal, or there are liver and kidney dysfunction, blindly infusing albumin may increase the burden of liver and may induce hepatic encephalopathy. Whether to infuse albumin or not should be judged according to the patient’s physical condition as well as the function of liver and kidney under the guidance of professional doctors.