Diagnostic characteristics of lung cancer

The clinical manifestations of lung cancer are complex and can be roughly summarized as symptoms caused by the primary tumor, intrathoracic spread, distant dissemination, and extrapulmonary manifestations. The symptoms and signs are related to the location, size, pathological type, duration of the disease, presence or absence of metastasis, and complications of the tumor.

(1) The initial symptoms and X-ray signs of central and peripheral lung cancer are different. It can be seen that central lung cancer causes more indirect symptoms and X-ray signs than peripheral lung cancer, which should be paid special attention to during diagnosis.

(2) Clinicians are already familiar with common symptoms such as cough, hemoptysis or blood in sputum, chest pain, chest tightness, and mass shadows on X-rays, so we will not go into detail here. What should be paid attention to are indirect manifestations caused by airway obstruction, such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and localized pneumonia. Many patients often seek medical treatment for these reasons, and if they are not taken seriously, they can often lead to misdiagnosis.

(3) Metastasis of lung cancer: It is usually easy to identify. Lymph node metastasis most often occurs above the clavicle, below the neck and under the armpit. Distant metastasis is usually hard, single or multiple nodules in different parts of the body and often causes corresponding symptoms. At this time, the primary lesion can often be found through chest X-ray. However, there are also cases where the primary lesion is not obvious and the patient comes to the doctor with metastatic lesions as the main complaint. In this case, the doctor needs to conduct a more careful and comprehensive examination.