Does the presence of blood in sputum mean lung cancer?

Blood in sputum is one of the early symptoms of lung cancer. Many lung cancer patients seek medical treatment because of blood in sputum. This is because tumor necrosis or capillary damage causes a small amount of bleeding, and the blood and sputum are mixed together and coughed up, usually intermittently or discontinuously.

However, not all blood in sputum is caused by lung cancer, because pulmonary infarction and bronchial asthma can cause blood in sputum, so how to distinguish them?

In fact, the nature and severity of the disease can be known from the nature, color and viscosity of the coughed-up material. Generally speaking, bright red blood in sputum is more common in tuberculosis or bronchiectasis, and sometimes pharyngeal inflammation can also cause coughing up blood; black blood in sputum is more common in pulmonary edema; and long-term blood in sputum or accompanied by chest pain, fatigue, weight loss and other symptoms should be alert to bronchial lung cancer.

If the presence of blood in sputum is ignored, the patient may experience hemoptysis. Hemoptysis is a symptom of severe blood in sputum. After it occurs, you should immediately go to the hospital for a systematic examination, because hemoptysis is generally caused by rupture of the nasal cavity, throat, trachea, pulmonary blood vessels, etc., and one of the causes of hemoptysis is lung cancer. In addition, bronchitis, tuberculosis, pneumonia, hemophilia, etc. can also cause hemoptysis.

Therefore, when patients have blood in sputum, especially hemoptysis, they should pay great attention to it and rule out the possibility of lung cancer as soon as possible. However, there is no need to panic too much. As mentioned above, not all blood in sputum is caused by lung cancer.