Symptoms of locally advanced lung cancer: The chest cavity is a very complicated space, and three quarters of the lung surface is surrounded by the chest wall, which is composed of a thin layer of 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.
1, hoarseness is the most common symptom in patients with advanced lung cancer. 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 side of the 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.
2. Shortness of breath and pleural effusion. Almost all patients with locally disseminated advanced lung cancer have varying degrees of shortness of breath. Normal tissue fluid produced by lung and myocardium flows back through 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.
3, facial and neck edema. There is 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.
Metastasis of different organs can occur in the late stage of lung cancer, which can cause corresponding symptoms and often bring great pain and even life-threatening to patients.
(1) Bone metastasis: About 50% of lung cancer patients will eventually have multiple bone metastases. Bone metastasis is generally asymptomatic in the early stage, and bone isotope scanning can find diseased bone. The symptoms of bone metastasis are related to the location and quantity of tumor metastasis, such as chest pain caused by rib metastasis of lung cancer, which is mostly manifested as localized pain in chest wall with clear tenderness points.
(2) Liver metastasis: The liver is also a common metastatic site of lung cancer, and about 28-33% of lung cancer has liver metastasis. Liver metastasis is that the cancer cells of primary lung cancer invade the liver through blood circulation and grow in the liver. Liver metastasis can be single or multiple nodular metastasis. The most common symptom is pain in the liver area, which is persistent swelling pain, and may be accompanied by loss of appetite, indigestion and other manifestations of impaired liver function.
(3) Brain metastasis: Patients with lung cancer have headache, vomiting, visual impairment and changes in personality and temper, which may be caused by intracranial hypertension or brain nerve injury caused by lung cancer metastasis to the brain. Common in small cell lung cancer and adenocarcinoma.
(4) Metastasis in other parts: Except the above-mentioned common metastatic parts, lung cancer rarely metastasizes in skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, abdominal cavity, heart and other parts, and symptoms are often related to the metastatic parts. If it is transferred to the heart, there will be chest tightness, palpitation and even shortness of breath, syncope, arrhythmia and other symptoms.
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