Early symptoms of lung cancer
Cough, mostly irritating cough. Cough is an early symptom of lung cancer, characterized by paroxysmal irritating choking cough with the feeling of not being able to cough up. If there is no improvement after 2 weeks of anti-inflammatory treatment, the possibility of lung cancer should be alerted. Or if the nature of cough changes on top of the existing chronic cough, even accompanied by “bronchial tinnitus” and “shortness of breath”, attention should be paid. Another warning sign of lung cancer is intermittent recurrent small amount of bloody sputum or sputum with blood in it. In addition, symptoms such as chest and back pain, chest tightness and fever are also present.
Chest tightness and chest pain are generally light and vaguely localized. When the cancer tumor invades the pleura and chest wall, the pain increases and the localization is clearer and more constant than before. Shortness of breath, which can be caused by pneumonia, pulmonary atelectasis, malignant pleural effusion and diffuse alveolar lesion due to obstruction of cancer tumor. Fever, caused by obstructive pneumonia or cancerous toxins. Patients with advanced disease may present with more pronounced cachexia.
Patients with the above symptoms are recommended to go to hospital for scientific examination. Lung cancer should be detected and treated early to relieve the pain and suffering of the disease.
Common signs of early stage lung cancer
Early lung cancer usually does not produce symptoms, so it is also called asymptomatic period, which varies from a few months to several years, and patients seldom seek medical treatment at this time, so it is difficult to be detected clinically. Besides those symptoms, due to the compression of lung cancer on other nerves and so on, most of the external signs will also be manifested, so patients and family members should pay more attention to them and seek medical consultation in time.
1.Limited wheezing sound is a unilateral limited wheezing sound, especially in the inspiratory stage, which does not disappear after coughing, and is one of the early signs of lung cancer, but it is short-lived and easy to be ignored.
2. Hoarseness appears when lymph node metastasis compresses or invades the recurrent laryngeal nerve (left side is more common). Laryngoscopic mediastinal examination may show paralysis of vocal cords on the affected side.
3.When the cancer presses the superior vena cava, it is common in right upper lobe small cell carcinoma, and the venous reflux of head and upper limbs is blocked, producing stasis edema and venous anger in head, face and upper body (i.e. superior vena cava compression syndrome).
4.Pulmonary carcinoma in the apical part of the lung, also called supraglottic sulcus, often compresses the cervical sympathetic nerve causing ipsilateral pupil narrowing. Horner’s syndrome such as ptosis of upper eyelid, sunken eyeball, narrow eye fissure, and less sweating in the forehead.
5.Compression of brachial plexus nerve causes ipsilateral shoulder and arm pain, inability to lift, radioactive pain and abnormal sensation in shoulder and fingers, and muscle atrophy.
6. Compression of the esophagus causes difficulty in swallowing and even bronchial fistula, leading to pulmonary infection and death by asphyxiation when the compression of the airway is severe.
7.When compressing phrenic nerve, it will cause paralysis and rise of ipsilateral diaphragm.
8.The tumor can cause reactive pleural fluid when it is close to the pleura, and often produce hemopleural fluid when it invades the pleura.
9.Invasion of vagus nerve by cancer may accelerate heart rate, invasion of conduction system of heart muscle may cause arrhythmia, invasion of pericardium may produce pericardial effusion and symptoms of constrictive pericarditis.
When lung cancer metastasizes through lymphatic tract, enlargement of lymph nodes in the corresponding area and symptoms of pressure in the adjacent corresponding area can be seen. When metastasis through blood channels to brain, bone, liver and other parts of the body, there are corresponding signs.
11.Other signs, joint pain of limbs or hypertrophic pestle finger, polyneuritis, myasthenia gravis, Cushing’s syndrome and gynecomastia hypertrophy, mental abnormalities, etc.
12.Tongue moss is thick and greasy, yellow moss and flaking moss are the next most common, and the number of tongue cracks and mangoes is significantly increased. The sublingual veins are showing, the large veins are full, the small veins are varicose, and the sublingual petechiae and ecchymosis are obviously increasing.
13.Facial color, the facial color of lung cancer patients is mostly pale, lusterless, flushed, purple-red, red like makeup, facial crab claw lines, obscurity, atrophy and other abnormal manifestations, especially the cheeks are significant. Especially the crab claw lines on the cheeks are aggravated with the increase of clinical stage.
Bronchopulmonary carcinoma generally has no special signs in early stage, so timely consultation should be made for scientific diagnosis and differentiation, early detection and early treatment to avoid the corresponding signs that can be presented after the carcinoma grows up and causes bronchial obstruction, and also try to avoid the signs such as pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, diaphragm elevation, chest wall pressure points, compression of superior vena cava and vocal cord paralysis when the carcinoma invades extra-thoracic lung tissue. Extrathoracic distant metastases can involve various parts of the body and present various signs. Therefore, physical examination of lung cancer patients should be comprehensive and meticulous, especially paying attention to whether there are enlarged lymph nodes in the neck [1] and whether the liver is enlarged and other common metastatic lesions. In the early stage of lung cancer, more attention should be paid to scientific dietary care and conditioning, and listen to the treatment arrangement of physicians to reduce the threat level of lung cancer metastasis and live a healthy and happy life.
Early Lung Cancer Treatment
Early stage lung cancer patients, whose digestive system function is sound, should seize the time to supplement the body with nutrition after clinical diagnosis in order to improve physical quality, enhance resistance and prevent or delay the emergence of cachexia. For early stage lung cancer patients, early detection and early treatment, the combination of traditional Chinese medicine treatment and supplemental nutrition can complement each other’s strengths to improve the cure rate, prolong the survival period, abate the pain and improve the quality of life for lung cancer patients. Therefore, early and mid-stage lung cancer patients should supplement various nutrients, such as high-quality protein, carbohydrates, fat, inorganic salts and multivitamins as soon as their digestive and absorption capacity allows.
For lung cancer patients coughing and coughing blood, there are many remedies and food recipes in Chinese medicine to nourish yin and moisten lung, stop coughing, stop bleeding and astringent. According to the folk remedies, lung cancer patients can also eat mealybug, turtle paste, turtle meat, glutinous rice and other nourishing and tonic foods.
It is good to choose TCM treatment, but TCM treatment is based on diagnosis and treatment. Patients should be examined by doctors, who will prescribe the right medicine according to their conditions.
Compared with digestive tract tumors, the diet of lung cancer patients should be better resolved. In addition to the above-mentioned tonic foods, lung cancer patients should use milk, eggs, lean meat, animal liver, soybean products, fresh vegetables and fruits, and so on. The amount and frequency of food intake can be increased as much as possible. Note: Lung cancer patients should avoid fishy and greasy food, spicy and stimulating food such as tobacco and alcohol. Recognize and understand some characteristic early symptoms of lung cancer, seriously study the scientific knowledge of lung cancer, should be highly alert to the possibility of lung cancer, patients with early stage of lung cancer should strengthen the Chinese herbal medicine for lung cancer health and seek medical consultation in time so as not to miss the disease.
Early diagnosis of lung cancer early symptoms
Due to the different biological characteristics of cancer cells, lung cancer is medically divided into two categories: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, which is further divided into squamous carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, large cell lung cancer, etc.
Lung cancer, like other malignant tumors, can produce some hormonal enzymes, antigens, fetoproteins and other biological substances, but these cancer markers are not yet valuable for the diagnosis of lung cancer. Clinicians should be highly alert to cases of middle-aged or above with unresolved cough or bloody sputum, as well as cases with lung X-rays that reveal masses of undefined nature or inflammatory changes. Patients with lung cancer should be detected, diagnosed and treated early to reduce the possibility of late metastasis and deterioration of lung cancer.
Clinical symptoms of early stage lung cancer are often atypical, therefore, when symptoms such as cough, coughing sputum, blood in sputum, chest tightness, breath-holding and wasting that last for more than 2 weeks occur, corresponding examination should be done in hospital to exclude lung cancer. In recent years, with the development of imaging technologies such as X-ray, CT and MRI, the diagnosis rate of lung cancer has been greatly improved, but it is worth noting that some patients and even doctors in primary care units have the misconception that “relying on imaging tests can confirm the diagnosis of lung cancer”. In fact, sputum cytology examination, serum tumor marker examination and fiberoptic bronchoscopy all play an important role in the diagnosis of lung cancer.
How to take care of lung cancer in early stage
Lung cancer is a very common cancer and ranks second in the mortality rate of malignant tumors in China. Generally, the systemic symptoms of lung cancer are not obvious. Early stage patients may have cough, shortness of breath, blood in sputum and other symptoms similar to tuberculosis, while late stage patients may have fever, emaciation, weakness and even cachexia.
Early and middle stage lung cancer patients, whose digestive system is sound, should seize the time to supplement the body with nutrients before and after treatment to improve the body quality, enhance the resistance and prevent or delay the appearance of cachexia. If the nutrients are filled sufficiently before treatment, patients with better body condition can tolerate chemotherapy and radiotherapy better and have better treatment effect; similarly, patients with better body condition can love surgery more and recover faster than those with poorer nutrition. Therefore, early to mid-stage lung cancer patients should be supplemented with various nutrients, such as high-quality protein, carbohydrates, fat, inorganic salts and multivitamins, as soon as their digestive and absorption capacity allows.
For lung cancer patients with cough and coughing blood, there are many remedies and food recipes in Chinese medicine to nourish yin and moisten lung, stop cough and stop bleeding and astringency, such as almond jellyfish, lily of the valley and water chestnut, while lotus root, lotus seed, persimmon, duck pear, yam, lily of the valley and white fungus have the function of stopping cough and astringency to stop bleeding. According to the folk recipes, lung cancer patients can also eat mealybug, turtle paste, turtle meat, glutinous rice and other nourishing and tonic foods.
Compared with digestive tract tumors, the diet of lung cancer patients should be relatively well resolved. In addition to the above-mentioned nourishing foods of TCM, lung cancer patients should use milk, eggs, lean meat, animal liver, soybean products, fresh vegetables and fruits, etc. to increase the amount and frequency of eating as much as possible. Note that lung cancer patients should avoid fishy and greasy food, spicy and stimulating food such as tobacco and alcohol.