ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM).MethodsA patient with PTTM was reported. Literatures about PTTM searched by WanFang databases and PubMed were reviewed for its clinical characteristics.ResultsA 62-year-old female was admitted with chief complaint of dry cough, dyspnea and hemoptysis. Progressive dyspnea, pulmonary hypertension and hypoxemia occurred during hospitalization. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) of the lung excluded pulmonary embolism. Peripheral blood appearing a large number of late erythroblasts and erythrocyte debris and progressively decreasing platelets suggested that the patient suffer from thrombotic microvascular disease. CT showed widely metastatic lesions at the vertebrae and sternum. On the basis of above clinical characteristics, PTTM was diagnosed clinically. Although the patient accepted respiratory support therapy, anticoagulation therapy and resuscitation, she still died 5 days later after hospitalization. Literatures about PTTM with complete clinical information were reviewed. A total of 92 PTTM cases were reviewed and the main reasons of these patients admitted were progressive dyspnea and chronic cough. During hospitalization, they all suffered varying degrees of hypoxia, while radiological findings of the lungs lack specificity. No abnormal sighs were found by lung CTA. The results of ultrasonic cardiography or the Swan–Ganz catheter indicated varying degrees of pulmonary hypertension, some patients were proved with disseminated intravascular coagulation and/or microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. The definite diagnosis of PTTM depended on the histologic evidence which were often obtained from post-mortem examination, because many patients couldn’t tolerate the lung biopsy due to rapid aggravation. The treatment of PTTM included respiratory support therapy, anticoagulation therapy, antipulmonary hypertension and the chemotherapy of primary or metastatic tumour. The prognosis of PTTM was poor and almost all of the patients died in a short term, ranged from 48 hours to 3 months.ConclusionIf a patient with a history of cancer or evidence of cancer metastasis has hypoxemia and pulmonary hypertension but without abnormal lung CTA signs, PTTM should be considered.