Beware of the four typical symptoms of laryngeal cancer

Due to the different primary growth sites of cancer, the main symptoms and the time of onset will be different, so you should be aware of this and not neglect it. The following four early typical symptoms can help you detect signs of laryngeal cancer early:

Typical symptom 1: Throat pain or foreign body sensation

When ulcers form on the surface of the tumor or swallowing stimulates the nerves, it can cause throat pain, which can sometimes be reflected to the ears. This is more common in supraglottic cancer, and during the examination, special attention should be paid to the edge of the epiglottis and the surface of the larynx.

Typical symptom 2: blood in sputum

Since the tumor tissue grows rapidly and has rich blood supply, the blood vessels are eroded, and in the early stage, there is often a symptom of coughing up bloody sputum. The symptom of bloody sputum is more common in supraglottic or subglottic cancer. In the early stage, the tumor has not yet invaded the vocal cords, and the voice can still be normal. Therefore, if there is persistent bloody sputum, after excluding other sources of bleeding from the nose, trachea and lungs, it is necessary to focus on checking the larynx.

Typical symptom three: hoarseness

If the tumor grows on the vocal cords, hoarseness will appear very early and gradually worsen and be difficult to cure. Therefore, if someone has hoarseness when speaking and it does not improve after treatment but gradually worsens for more than 3 weeks, especially if he is a middle-aged or older man, he should make up his mind to see a specialist for a detailed examination.

Typical symptom 4: Lump on the side of the neck

Vocal cord cancer rarely metastasizes to cervical lymph nodes in the early stage due to anatomical reasons, but laryngeal cancer in the supraglottic and subglottic regions may attract the attention of patients or doctors by the appearance of enlarged metastatic lymph nodes on the same or bilateral neck sides. The characteristics of this mass are that it grows on both sides of the larynx, is painless, substantial, gradually increases in size, and is generally movable in the early stage. In any case, further laryngeal examination is necessary to find out whether there is a primary lesion of laryngeal cancer.