Lung cancer is a relatively difficult disease to diagnose and treat, mainly because it has no clinical symptoms or atypical symptoms in the early stage, which is often easy to be ignored. The overall 5-year survival rate of stage III-IV patients is only about 5%. What are the symptoms of late stage lung cancer? 1. Hoarseness: it is the most common symptom of advanced lung cancer patients. The recurrent laryngeal nerve, which controls the left side of the articulation function, goes down from the neck to the chest and returns up to the larynx around the large blood vessel of the heart, thus innervating the left side of the articulation organ. Therefore, if the tumor invades the left side of mediastinum, the laryngeal nerve will be compressed and hoarseness will be produced, but there are no other symptoms such as sore throat and upper respiratory tract infection. 2. Facial and neck edema: In the right side of mediastinum, there is superior vena cava, which transmits venous blood from upper limbs and head and neck back to heart. If the tumor invades the right side of mediastinum and presses the superior vena cava, the jugular vein will be angered by poor return flow at first, and finally it will lead to facial and neck edema, which needs timely diagnosis and treatment. 3.Shortness of breath and pleural effusion: Almost all patients with advanced lung cancer with regional spread have different degrees of shortness of breath. Normal tissue fluid produced by the lung and heart muscle is returned by the lymph nodes in the middle of the chest. If these lymph nodes are blocked by the tumor, this tissue fluid will accumulate in the pericardium to form a pericardial effusion or in the thorax to form a pleural effusion. Both of the above conditions can lead to shortness of breath. 4.Pain: It is a frequent symptom of lung cancer patients in the late stage. Thorax is a very complex space, three-quarters of the lung surface is surrounded by chest wall, which is composed of a thin layer of lining (wall pleura), fat, muscle, ribs and skin in different proportions. Tumor invasion of any of these parts can cause pain. Thus, most patients with lung cancer that has developed regional dissemination within the chest have symptoms of chest pain. The area that surrounds the top of the lung, the tip of the lung, forms a special area of the chest wall. Nerve fibers from the neck, sensory and motor innervation of the upper extremities enter the upper extremities through this area. Therefore, if the tumor invades this area, the pain and weakness of the affected upper limb will be felt. As a kind of lung cancer, this so-called “Pancoast cancer”, or upper sulcus cancer, often has shoulder pain as the main symptom. As for the metastasis of malignant tumor, bone metastasis, liver metastasis and other metastatic lesions can also cause pain. Tumor pain often needs analgesics to be relieved. 5. Wasting, anemia and cachexia: The rapid growth of malignant tumor cells will greatly consume the nutrition in the body and greatly affect the growth of normal cells, resulting in wasting and anemia, which is clinically called cachexia. What are the treatments for advanced lung cancer? For the treatment of advanced lung cancer, clinical treatment methods are divided into surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine. For patients with advanced lung cancer who have lost the chance of surgical treatment, chemotherapy should be the main treatment method and supplemented with Chinese herbal medicine. 1.Surgical treatment: Many family members or patients have misconceptions about the treatment of advanced lung cancer, believing that surgery should be performed no matter what, and if surgery is not possible, the patient will not be able to do it soon. In fact, the result is often the opposite. Although surgery can remove the lesions in the lungs, due to the poor physique and low immunity of patients with advanced lung cancer, surgery will often cause their vitality to be greatly injured and their quality of life to drop drastically. If they do not cooperate with systemic treatment, the good scenes often do not last long and lead to tumor recurrence or metastasis, especially for small cell lung cancer. 2.Chemotherapy: Small cell lung cancer has rapid development and prominent tendency of systemic dissemination, and it is highly sensitive to chemotherapy, and the 5-year survival rate has increased from 1% to more than 10%. However, for patients with advanced lung cancer, the cycle of chemotherapy should not exceed 4-6 cycles, but many people want to improve the efficacy through high-dose chemotherapy, but contrary to their wish, the excessive aggressive treatment not only does not prolong the survival, but also reduces the quality of life of patients, making the symptoms of patients with advanced lung cancer worse and painful. Some patients with advanced lung cancer have undergone chemotherapy, and although their tumors have shrunk, their general condition is very poor, with many painful symptoms, and their life expectancy has not been prolonged, and neither the individual nor the society has benefited from the treatment. 3.Radiotherapy: Radiotherapy can reduce the symptoms of 70% of patients with advanced lung cancer, and external radiotherapy with different doses and split amounts can relieve the local symptoms of primary or metastatic foci. However, patients with advanced lung cancer often die in a hurry due to the strong toxic side effects and complications of radiotherapy. While suffering from cancer, they also have to endure toxic side effects such as chest pain, nausea, vomiting, hair loss and weakness brought by radiotherapy and other treatment options, and their quality of life is extremely poor. However, if radiotherapy is combined with TCM for effective conditioning, the quality of life of patients with advanced lung cancer can be greatly improved, immunity can be enhanced, and the effect of treatment can be greatly improved. 4.Chinese medicine treatment: Chinese medicine treatment emphasizes the balance of “symptoms” and “root”, not only focuses on the local lesions of tumor, but also takes into account the whole body, which makes the treatment more comprehensive and the efficacy more outstanding, and becomes an important part of maintaining and improving the life quality of patients. Chinese medicine pays more attention to the balance of Qi, blood and fluid in the internal organs of patients with advanced lung cancer, and emphasizes on treating the root of the disease. Its unique two-way regulation can greatly improve the basic physical condition of patients with advanced lung cancer, thus enabling patients with advanced lung cancer to survive with tumor for a long time.