What are the symptoms of advanced lung cancer? 4 symptoms of advanced lung cancer that you should know

I believe everyone knows that lung cancer is the number one killer that endangers people's health. So how can people avoid the occurrence of lung cancer in the face of this difficult disease? With the increase in the number of lung cancer patients, the general public has also paid attention to this disease. We have a certain understanding of the early manifestations of lung cancer. So what are the manifestations of advanced lung cancer? Let the experts give you a brief introduction.

The clinical manifestations of lung cancer are closely related to the location, size, compression, invasion of adjacent organs, and metastasis of the tumor. Early lung cancer, especially peripheral lung cancer, often does not produce any symptoms and is mostly discovered during chest X-ray examinations. When the tumor grows in the larger bronchi, it often causes an irritating cough, mostly with paroxysmal dry coughs or only a small amount of white foamy sputum, which can easily be mistaken for a cold. When the tumor continues to grow and affects bronchial drainage, secondary lung infection may occur, and there may be purulent sputum, and the amount of sputum is also increased compared to before. Another common symptom is bloody sputum, usually with blood spots, blood threads, or intermittent small amounts of hemoptysis in the sputum, while large amounts of hemoptysis are rare. Some lung cancer patients may present clinically with symptoms such as chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath, fever, and mild chest pain due to varying degrees of obstruction of the larger bronchi caused by the tumor.

When advanced lung cancer compresses and invades adjacent organs and tissues or metastasizes to distant sites, the following symptoms may occur: 1. Compression or invasion of the phrenic nerve, causing paralysis of the ipsilateral diaphragm. 2. Compression or invasion of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, causing vocal cord paralysis and hoarseness. 3. Compression of the superior vena cava, causing venous distension in the face, neck, upper limbs and upper chest, tissue edema, and increased venous pressure in the upper limbs. 4. Invasion of the pleura, which can cause pleural effusion, often bloody. Large amounts of effusion can cause shortness of breath. In addition, invasion of the pleura and chest wall by the cancer can cause persistent and severe chest pain. 5. The cancer invades the mediastinum and compresses the esophagus, which can cause difficulty in swallowing. 6. 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.

In addition, there are a few cases of lung cancer that, due to the production of endocrine substances by the tumor, present clinically with non-metastatic systemic symptoms, such as osteoarthritis syndrome (clubbed fingers, osteoarthritis, periosteal hyperplasia, etc.), Cushing's syndrome, myasthenia gravis, male breast enlargement, multiple myoneuralgia, etc. These symptoms may disappear after the removal of the lung cancer.