- A rare lung disease that tends to affect women of childbearing age.
- The muscle cells that line the lung’s airways and blood vessels begin to multiply abnormally. These muscle cells spread into areas of the lung where they don’t belong.
- The air sacs in the lung also swell and form small pockets called cysts. As the cysts develop throughout the lungs, LAM causes breathing problems similar to emphysema.
- The muscle cells can spread outside the lung, forming noncancerous tumors on organs in the abdomen and pelvis.
- Cause is unknown
- Estrogen seems to be involved, because women rarely develop LAM before puberty or after menopause. Fewer than 10 men are known to have ever developed LAM lung disease.
- Smoking isn’t known to cause LAM: more than half of people with LAM lung disease have never smoked.
- LAM is so rare that it’s unknown how often it really occurs.
- LAM is not cancer, but appears similar to other conditions in which benign tumors grow uncontrollably. LAM lung disease shares some features with a different condition called tuberous sclerosis.