What symptoms will patients with advanced lung cancer have? Five symptoms of advanced lung cancer are very common

Extrapulmonary and intrathoracic manifestations: A series of chest manifestations may occur due to tumor invasion of the pleura, chest wall, mediastinal organs, and intrathoracic nerves. Tumor invasion of the pleura may cause respiratory pain and pleural effusion (ie, pleural effusion). Bloody pleural effusion indicates a poor prognosis.

Although many people believe that lung cancer is related to smoking, in fact, its specific cause has not been clearly identified in medicine, so when lung cancer patients reach the late stage, it is very difficult to treat. Experts point out that at this stage, patients should pay more attention to the development of their disease and tell the doctor in detail the symptoms of the disease.

So, what are the symptoms of patients with advanced lung cancer?

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

(1) Lung symptoms

① Cough: It is the most common symptom of lung cancer, 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 of coughing changes or night coughing occurs, be alert to lung cancer. Continuous and uncontrollable coughing is one of the most painful symptoms of lung cancer.

② Hemoptysis: Half of lung cancer patients have this symptom of lung cancer. 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, which is also one of the 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 a higher body temperature is often caused by the absorption of toxins. 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°C. 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.

⑤ Chest tightness and shortness of breath: In addition to tumors blocking the bronchus and causing atelectasis and lung inflammation, which can also cause chest tightness and shortness of breath, it is generally more obvious in the late stages of lung cancer, especially when there is a large amount of pleural effusion.

(2) Extrapulmonary and intrathoracic manifestations: A series of chest manifestations may occur due to tumor invasion of the pleura, chest wall, mediastinal organs, and intrathoracic nerves. Tumor invasion of the pleura may cause respiratory 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, headache, 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.

In addition to some symptoms of illness around the lungs, lung cancer patients will also have some symptoms throughout the body, such as nausea, vomiting, decreased resistance, etc. Therefore, if you don’t want to get lung cancer, long-term smokers should learn how to quit smoking from now on.