A cough treated as pneumonia for three months did not heal, but it turned out to be lung cancer Dry cough, chest pain, blood in the sputum, with these symptoms, remember to do a thorough examination. In recent days, when Auntie Liao in Jiangbei District sees friends and relatives around her who have a cough that is not good for many days, she cannot help but urge them to go to a regular hospital for a thorough checkup. Why is she so sensitive to coughs? It turns out that some time ago, Auntie Liao had just undergone a single-hole minimally invasive surgery to remove a malignant mass of about 2 cm in her lung, or lung cancer, which she had treated as pneumonia for more than three months before the surgery. Dr. Tian Hui, deputy director of thoracic surgery at Lee Wai Lee East Hospital, said that coughing is the same symptom of pneumonia and lung cancer in their early stages, which can be easily confused and patients should not be sloppy. ”Aunt Liao is 60 years old and has been suffering from chronic bronchitis and asthma for more than 5 years. Whenever she has a cough, she rushes to take medicine and see a doctor, fearing that the small problem will become a big one. A few months ago, Auntie Liao started coughing again, and after taking medicine at home for two or three days that didn’t work, she rushed to a hospital near her home to see a doctor, who, after a brief examination, gave her a new prescription and she went back to take it on time. After a week or so, the coughing symptoms did not improve at all, and there was also some chest pain, so Auntie Liao changed hospitals for treatment. This time, the doctor found that she had mycoplasma infection in her lungs after examination, and the CT showed that there were shadows in her lungs, and based on Auntie Liao’s symptoms, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. However, more than ten days later, Auntie Liao’s cough became more severe, sometimes with phlegm after coughing and blood in the sputum. The family rushed to take her to another hospital for examination, this time to the thoracic surgery department of Li Huili East Hospital. Dr. Tian Hui gave her a week of anti-inflammatory treatment and found that the CT showed a shadow that was a little lighter in color but did not change in size, and he initially guessed that it was a malignant tumor. A few days ago, Dr. Tian Hui did a minimally invasive surgery to remove this 1.8 cm mass from Auntie Liao’s lung through a single-port lumpectomy, followed by a rapid intraoperative frozen section, which was clearly early stage lung cancer. The “pneumonia” that had been treated for nearly 3 months was actually lung cancer, and Auntie Liao was really scared. Fortunately, it was not found too late and she recovered well after the surgery. If you have these symptoms, please consider the possibility of lung cancer At present, the incidence of lung cancer is the top of all kinds of malignant tumors in China, and the trend is increasing year by year. Tian Hui introduced that there are indeed many early stage lung cancer patients who mistakenly treat cough as pneumonia clinically, and many lung cancer patients in the department are referred from the respiratory department. ”The same symptoms of pneumonia and early lung cancer are easy to confuse, while the shadows on the imaging manifestation of early lung cancer are similar to other diseases of the lung, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, which are more difficult to distinguish”, Tian Hui said, “Therefore, some cough patients, whose symptoms are relieved after taking medication, will not pay attention to it, and if long-term delayed, cancer cells metastasize to lymph nodes or other organs, and lung cancer develops from early stage to middle and late stage, with unimaginable consequences.” How can patients distinguish between pneumonia and early cough symptoms of lung cancer? Tian Hui introduces that usually, lung cancer is mainly dry cough and long-lasting, sometimes with blood in the sputum; while the common cough of pneumonia is mostly accompanied by thick sputum and fever at the same time. Patients with cough attacks that are ineffective after two to three weeks of treatment with multiple antibiotics, or temporarily effective but frequently recurring, should be highly alert to the possibility of lung cancer if they are also accompanied by persistent chest pain symptoms. Dr. Tian reminded that there are several risk factors for lung cancer, and the following groups of people should be more alert once they have recurrent cough symptoms: people with a smoking index of 400 (i.e., number of cigarettes per day x number of years of smoking); people with a family history of the disease; people over 50 years old; people with a history of long-term physical and chemical occupational exposure; and people with a history of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and tuberculosis. In addition, as we enter winter, there is a steady stream of patients visiting the hospital for coughing. Dr. Tian Hui reminds us that after symptoms improve, if the doctor asks for a review of CT within two or three weeks, we should follow the doctor’s instructions and not delay the condition by taking it lightly.