Symptoms of Lung Cancer

In early stages of lung cancer most of the people may not complain or reflect about the associated symptoms. Because of this the ailment cannot be diagnosed until it had spread to other parts. But one should be careful in case of any of these signs like cough, pain in chest, sputum in blood, shortness in breath etc.

In the later stages one can find change in voice, weight loss, weakness and fatigue. The symptoms also vary with the location of the ailment and the presence of paraneoplastic syndromes. Usually most of the patients show lesion of coin size in chest roentgenogram. The lesions can have dyspnea, cough, wheezing, and strider and post obstructive pneumonia. The peripheral lesions can be painful. The pain is on account of pleural or invasion in the chest wall with restrictive dyspnea.

Coughing is one of the most common problems as with the growth of the tumor the air passage gets blocked. Apart from this the person may complain with pain in chest, back or in the shoulder. Fatigue and hoarseness, repetitive pneumonia or bronchitis with swelling in face and neck could be seen. While some of the symptoms may not look like the problem is related to the lungs, these may include headache, bone fractures, blood clots, weakness, bleeding and pain. In case the lung cancer metastases such signs are felt.

If it attacks certain nerves of the neck then it can lead to droopy eyelid, reduction in perspiration in one side, sunken eye and small pupil. All these symptoms are known as Horner’s syndrome. In case if the cancer grows inside the esophagus then it can cause difficulty in swallowing. In case the cancer grows near the heart then it can lead to abnormal heart beats, blockage of blood flow or even fluid formation in the pericardial sac of the heart.