Lung cancer may not be such a silent disease after all, so it’s important to listen to your body and tell your doctor if you experience new symptoms
Although lung cancer is often thought to be a "silent disease," with no symptoms appearing until it’s too late for treatment, a new study finds that some lung cancer patients had symptoms for many months before they were diagnosed. This study of 22 men and women recently diagnosed with lung cancer found that patients recalled having new symptoms for many months, typically during the year before their lung cancer diagnosis, no matter what the stage of their disease when diagnosed.
Chest symptoms -- cough, breathing changes, and chest pain -- were common lung cancer symptoms, as were feelings of fatigue or lethargy, weight loss, and eating changes. Most symptoms were not interpreted as serious by patients at the time, and were therefore not acted on. The patients’ beliefs about health changes that could indicate lung cancer played a part in the delay in diagnosis.
Better insight into patients' perspectives on their experience before being diagnosed with lung cancer may help doctors to recognize patients with lung cancer earlier and more easily so that they can refer them for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible. This lung cancer study was reported in the journal Thorax (Volume 60, page 314).
Peter B. Terry, M.D., professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins' Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, cautions people to take their symptoms seriously.
So what should you look for? Symptoms specific to the growth and spread of lung cancer may include coughing up red or rust-colored phlegm, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
Sometimes an infection in the lung behind the tumor that is obstructing the airway produces a fever. Invasion of cancerous cells into the pleura or other nearby structures can produce pain in the chest, shoulders, or arms. If the lung cancer spreads to surrounding tissues, it can lead to enlarged lymph nodes in the chest or neck and impingement of various nerves, resulting in hoarseness. Due to narrowing of the esophagus, a person may have difficulty swallowing. There may be swelling of the neck and face from blockage of blood flow from these areas to the heart. In about 30% of patients, lung cancer also causes clubbing of the fingers (a thickening of the fingertips and increased curvature of the fingernails).
