What are the symptoms of advanced lung cancer

With the increasing pollution caused by modern industrialization, the incidence of lung cancer has increased significantly. In my country, the incidence of lung cancer ranks first among malignant tumors. When many patients have obvious symptoms, they go to the hospital for examination and find that they are already in the late stage of lung cancer, and have missed the golden period for treatment. So what are the symptoms of late stage lung cancer? Here I will explain them to you in detail.

The clinical manifestations of lung cancer vary greatly in severity depending on the location of the disease. For example, in central lung cancer, symptoms appear earlier and are more obvious; while in peripheral lung cancer, symptoms are often not obvious. Sometimes the disease has no symptoms at all, but it is already in the late stage when it is discovered. Here is a summary of the typical manifestations of advanced lung cancer.

First of all, there are local manifestations: the most common is coughing, which is an irritating dry cough. When accompanied by an upper respiratory tract infection, sputum may occur. When the tumor appears in the small bronchus, the patient may not have a cough. The second is hemoptysis, which is caused by the rupture of blood vessels caused by the tumor. If the rupture occurs in a large blood vessel, it may cause a lot of bleeding and endanger life. In addition, there is chest pain or chest tightness. Patients often have symptoms of difficulty breathing, accompanied by cyanosis of the peripheral blood vessels of the limbs; finally, advanced lung cancer will also affect the vocal cords, causing vocal cord nerve paralysis and hoarseness.

Secondly, systemic manifestations: some patients with advanced lung cancer will have elevated body temperature, which may be caused by bacterial or viral infection, or by tumors. Antibiotics or antiviral drugs are ineffective. Due to long-term pain, chemotherapy and other factors, patients may suffer from malnutrition, and tumor cells consume more energy from the body, leading to significant weight loss, anemia and other cachexia symptoms.

In addition, there are metastatic symptoms, such as clubbing, muscle weakness, skin inflammation, metastasis to multiple organs and other clinical manifestations.

To sum up, the clinical manifestations of advanced lung cancer are divided into three categories: local, systemic and extrapulmonary metastasis. Depending on the type of lung cancer, the time when symptoms appear is also different. Cancer focuses on early detection and early treatment to achieve the best treatment effect. It is recommended that middle-aged and elderly people insist on annual health examinations. If lung cancer is found, they should face the disease actively and cooperate with the doctor's treatment.