Patients are mostly asymptomatic in the early stages and are mostly detected during physical examination. When the tumour grows to a certain size and exerts pressure on the surrounding organs, chest pain, chest tightness, cough and manifestations of superior vena cava obstruction syndrome may appear, specifically cough, headache, head swelling, nausea, change in vision, hoarseness, difficulty in lowering the throat and convulsions.
If malignant lesions occur or with local metastases patients may present with signs such as malaise, night sweats, low-grade fever, wasting, anaemia, severe chest pain and pericardial and pleural effusions.