When it comes to lung cancer, everyone gets angry because lung cancer is one of the tumors with the highest morbidity and mortality rates. With the advancement of industrialization, the impact of factors such as air pollution and smoking, the incidence of lung cancer has increased. The rate is increasing year by year. The most frightening thing is that the early symptoms of lung cancer are not obvious, and many patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage.

For this reason, many people, including medical experts, have been exploring clues for the early detection of lung cancer for many years. In addition to early imaging screening, doctors are also paying special attention to the characteristic abnormal changes in the body related to lung cancer. Among them , doctors discovered that lung cancer patients did indeed find an abnormality on their hands - clubbing fingers.

What is finger clubbing? Why does lung cancer cause finger clubbing?

Clubbing refers to the painless proliferation and swelling of the soft tissue at the end of the knuckle, especially the back, which causes the end of the knuckle to deform and resembles a club-like shape. The first person to discover clubbing fingers was Hippocrates, the father of medicine. He once described a patient with a lung abscess and ulcer who also showed abnormal curvature of the fingers and nails. The shape of the fingers resembled a pestle or a mallet, so he recorded And named it as clubbing finger.

Why does lung cancer also cause clubbing? At present, the exact cause of finger clubbing caused by lung cancer is still not clear. The medical community also has many hypotheses, such as infectious toxins, mechanical factors, endocrine factors, neural reflexes, etc. However, no strong evidence has been found to support these theories. The more accepted theory is based on the theory of platelet production. This theory holds that when megakaryocytes in the body are unable to convert into platelets in the pulmonary circulation due to lung cancer, they tend to remain in the peripheral circulation and release platelet-derived factors, leading to the appearance of clubbing fingers. At the same time, because finger clubbing is often complicated by hypertrophic osteoarthritis, it is also believed to be caused by the inflammatory reaction of the distal finger osteoarthritis caused by lung cancer.

Not all clubbing fingers are lung cancer, heart disease can also cause them

It should be reminded that not all patients with lung cancer will have clubbing fingers, and clubbing fingers are not A specific early stage manifestation of lung cancer, in fact, only a minority of lung cancer patients have finger clubbing as their first clinical manifestation. In addition, even if clubbing of the fingers appears, it does not mean that lung cancer is coming. Other heart and lung diseases can also cause clubbing of the fingers. Sometimes patients seek treatment for skin diseases such as onychomycosis and are found to have clubbing of the fingers. In this case, it is necessary to Comprehensive cardiopulmonary examination to rule out lung cancer and other diseases.

In short, don’t panic if clubbing occurs, but it is recommended to go to the hospital for relevant examinations as soon as possible to determine the cause as soon as possible.