(1) Pain is a common symptom in patients with advanced lung cancer.
Reason: Thoracic cavity is a very complicated space. Three quarters of the lung surface is surrounded by the chest wall. It consists of a thin intima (parietal pleura), fat, muscle, ribs and skin in different proportions. Tumors invading any of the above parts will cause pain. Therefore, most lung cancer patients with regional spread in the chest have symptoms of chest pain.
A special area of the chest wall is formed at the top of the lung, that is, around the apex of the lung.
The cervical nerve fibers that dominate the sensation and movement of the upper limb enter the upper limb through this area.
Therefore, if the tumor invades this area, you will often feel the pain and fatigue of the affected upper limb. As a kind of lung cancer, the so-called "Pan-Koster cancer" or "Superior Sulcus cancer" often takes shoulder pain as the main symptom. This kind of pain often needs analgesics to relieve it. Usually, such patients are easily sent to plastic surgeons or neurologists for treatment, thus losing the opportunity of early diagnosis.
(2) hoarseness is one of the late symptoms of lung cancer.
Reason: The recurrent laryngeal nerve, which controls the left pronunciation function, goes down from the neck to the chest, bypasses the great vessels of the heart and goes up to the throat, thus dominating the left pronunciation organ. Therefore, if the tumor invades the left mediastinum and compresses the recurrent laryngeal nerve, there will be hoarseness, but there will be no symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection such as sore throat.
(3) Edema of face and neck is also a common cause of late symptoms of lung cancer: there is an superior vena cava on the right side of mediastinum, which transports venous blood of upper limbs and head and neck back to the heart. If the tumor invades the right mediastinum and compresses the superior vena cava, it will initially make the jugular vein swell due to poor reflux, and finally lead to edema of the face and neck, which needs timely diagnosis and treatment.
(4) Shortness of breath and pleural effusion are also manifestations of late symptoms of lung cancer.
Cause: Normal tissue fluid produced by lung and myocardium flows back from lymph nodes in the middle of chest.
If these lymph nodes are blocked by tumors, these tissue fluids will accumulate in the pericardium to form pericardial effusion or accumulate in the chest cavity to form pleural effusion. Both of the above conditions will lead to shortness of breath. However, because many smokers have different degrees of chronic lung diseases, it is difficult to distinguish shortness of breath.
In addition, because some lung tissues lose their respiratory function due to the tumor, the whole respiratory function is damaged, resulting in respiratory discomfort, which is only produced during exercise at first, and can be felt even at rest at last.
The appearance of the above-mentioned late symptoms of lung cancer will seriously affect the quality of life of patients with lung cancer, especially those with advanced lung cancer. Physical pain and psychological torture can make people weak and lose confidence in overcoming diseases. Relieving symptoms as early as possible can not only improve the patient's physical condition, but also make the patient have the confidence to overcome the disease and actively cooperate with the treatment, thus producing a good therapeutic effect. But at present, patients have to endure chest pain, nausea, vomiting, alopecia, fatigue and other adverse reactions such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The development of traditional Chinese medicine has been paid more and more attention by oncologists. Due to the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, great progress has been made from the etiology and pathogenesis, with few adverse reactions, which is helpful to improve the quality of life of patients and prolong their lives.