What are the symptoms of mid-to-late stage lung cancer? Five major symptoms of mid-to-late stage lung cancer

Lung cancer is a very common type of malignant tumor and the second leading cause of death in humans. There are many causes of lung cancer in daily life. Once you have lung cancer, if you do not actively treat it, it is likely to induce diseases in other organs of the body. Let us now learn about the five symptoms of middle and late stage lung cancer.

1. The top of the upper lobe of the lung can invade and compress the organs and tissues located at the upper opening of the thorax, such as the first rib, subclavian artery and vein, brachial plexus, cervical sympathetic nerves, etc., causing severe chest pain, upper limb venous distension, edema, arm pain and upper limb movement disorders, ptosis of the upper eyelid on the same side, pupil constriction, enophthalmos, facial anhidrosis and other cervical sympathetic nerve syndromes. After lung cancer metastasizes through the blood, different symptoms will occur according to the invaded organs.

2. Hoarseness is the most common symptom. The recurrent laryngeal nerve that controls the left side of the vocal function goes down from the neck to the chest, bypasses the large blood vessels of the heart and goes back up to the larynx, thus controlling the left side of the vocal organ. Therefore, if the tumor invades the left side of the mediastinum and compresses the recurrent laryngeal nerve, hoarseness will occur, but there will be no sore throat or other symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection.

3. Invasion of the pleura can cause pleural effusion, which is often bloody. Large amounts of effusion can cause shortness of breath. In addition, invasion of the pleura and chest wall by cancer can cause persistent and severe chest pain.

4. Ultimately, almost all patients with regionally spread lung cancer experience varying degrees of shortness of breath. Normal tissue fluid produced by the lungs and myocardium is returned by the lymph nodes in the middle of the chest. If these lymph nodes are blocked by tumors, this tissue fluid will accumulate in the pericardium to form pericardial effusion or accumulate in the chest cavity to form pleural effusion.

5. On the right side of the mediastinum is the superior vena cava, which transports venous blood from the upper limbs and head and neck back to the heart. If the tumor invades the right side of the mediastinum and compresses the superior vena cava, it will initially cause the jugular vein to become swollen due to poor blood return, and eventually lead to edema of the face and neck, which needs to be diagnosed and treated in a timely manner.

Understanding these symptoms of lung cancer helps us diagnose the disease. I believe that through this article, everyone has learned about lung cancer. I hope that in the future, everyone can do a good job in preventing lung cancer and try to avoid the occurrence of lung diseases.