What are the typical symptoms of lung cancer patients? Introduction to the typical symptoms of lung cancer patients

Because of the existence of lung cancer, many lives have been taken away, and it has had a great impact on our lives. With the increasing incidence and mortality of lung cancer, more and more people are beginning to pay attention to lung cancer. So, what are the typical symptoms of lung cancer? Let's take a look at the experts' explanation below!

About 5% to 10% of patients with early lung cancer have no symptoms and are only discovered during X-ray examinations. More than 90% of patients have symptoms, but they are not early-stage specific symptoms. Generally, there are four categories.

(1) Manifestations of extrathoracic metastasis:

Lung cancer often metastasizes along lymphatic vessels and blood vessels, with cervical lymph nodes, liver, adrenal glands, bones, kidneys and brain being the most common sites. Nearly 15% of patients present with metastatic lesions as the first manifestation, and hematogenous metastasis is the most common in adenocarcinoma and small cell lung cancer.

(2) Extrapulmonary and intrathoracic manifestations:

Since the tumor invades the pleura, chest wall, mediastinal organs, and intrathoracic nerves, a series of chest manifestations may occur. Tumor invasion of the pleura may cause breathing pain and pleural effusion (i.e., pleural effusion). Bloody pleural effusion indicates a poor prognosis. If malignant tumor cells are found in the pleural effusion, the opportunity for surgery will be lost. Tumor involvement in the mediastinum is mostly caused by mediastinal lymph node metastasis, and a few are direct invasions. 5% of patients suffer from edema of the upper limbs and above the shoulders, venous distension, headaches, and difficulty breathing due to tumor compression of the superior vena cava, indicating that the disease is already in the late stage. Tumor compression of the esophagus may cause difficulty in swallowing, and invasion of the recurrent laryngeal nerve may cause hoarseness.

(3) Non-metastatic manifestations outside the chest:

What are the typical symptoms of lung cancer patients? Only 2% of patients may have non-metastatic manifestations outside the chest, but the symptoms are complex, involving many systems, and the etiology is unknown. Common bone manifestations include clubbing of fingers (toes) and osteoarthritis; neuromuscular manifestations, such as myopathy, peripheral neuropathy, cerebellar degeneration; endocrine manifestations, such as Cushing's syndrome, abnormal hormone secretion in the body, carcinoid syndrome, hypercalcemia; vascular manifestations, such as phlebitis, endocarditis; blood manifestations, such as anemia, purpura, leukemoid reaction; skin manifestations, such as acanthosis nigricans, scleroderma, etc.

(4) Pulmonary symptoms:

① Cough: It is the most common symptom, and about 2/3 of patients have this symptom. It can be a mild dry cough or a severe cough, with varying amounts of sputum. However, in patients with chronic long-term coughs, once the nature of the cough changes, or the frequency changes or the cough occurs at night, be alert to lung cancer. Continuous and uncontrollable cough is one of the typical symptoms of lung cancer patients.

② Hemoptysis: Half of lung cancer patients have this symptom. If a smoking man over 40 years old has blood in his sputum, blood streaks or small blood clots, the possibility of lung cancer is very high. This is also one of the early symptoms of lung cancer.

③Chest pain: 30% to 40% of patients experience pulmonary chest pain, which is generally intermittent and mild chest pain. It manifests as dull pain or drilling pain, which can last from minutes to hours. If the tumor invades the pleura, the pain will be more severe, continuous and fixed. If chest pain recurs in early lung cancer, the prognosis is poor if the pain recurs later.

④ Fever: Most of the fever of lung cancer is caused by inflammation due to bronchial obstruction and poor drainage caused by cancer. Early antibiotic treatment can restore body temperature to normal, but it is easy to relapse. In patients with larger tumors, necrosis occurs in the inflammatory center, and the absorption of toxins often causes a higher body temperature. Sometimes the fever is remitted every day for several months, and repeated anti-inflammatory treatment is ineffective. Once the tumor is removed, the body temperature immediately returns to normal. Lung cancer patients have no obvious inflammation in their bodies, but they have obvious fever, which is often caused by the tumor itself, the so-called "cancer fever", and the body temperature is often below 38 degrees. Male smokers over 45 years old who have long-term lung inflammation and fever and poor treatment results should be especially alert to the possibility of lung cancer.

Lung cancer is a very common malignant tumor with increasing mortality and morbidity rates. Many lung cancer patients suffer from the disease for a long time. They have tried various treatments but to no avail. Eventually, lung cancer takes away their young lives. Therefore, it is urgent to prevent lung cancer. Don't wait until tragedy happens before you regret it.