The lung is the most important respiratory organ of the human body, and it also has the function of hematopoiesis, which has an irreplaceable position in the internal organs.
However, in recent years, affected by the increasingly serious air pollution in China, industrial development, and the sharp increase in the number of smokers, the incidence of acute and chronic lung diseases in China is also increasing year by year, of which lung cancer has become the most high-incidence malignant tumor.
Relevant surveys show that the number of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients in China reaches more than 800,000 every year. What is more worrying is that because the cancer does not cause damage to lung function in the early stage of development, patients in the early stages basically have no symptoms.
Not only that, but even if lung cancer has developed symptoms, it is very similar to other respiratory diseases.
Because of this, the early diagnosis rate of clinical lung cancer in China is quite low, and more than 2/3 of patients have entered the middle and advanced stages when they first seek medical examination, and the treatment is quite difficult.
In China, nearly 700,000 patients die of lung cancer each year. Therefore, the clinic has always emphasized the importance of early detection and early treatment of lung cancer.
So the question is, what symptoms are looking for themselves, so that they can pay more attention to it?
1. Long-term cough: after the cancer of the lungs, if the patient's cancer grows in a very sensitive upper bronchial mucosa, or the tumor causes changes in bronchial mucosal secretion and other complications;
It is the most typical symptom of lung cancer, and patients are mostly manifested as paroxysmal irritating cough, similar to foreign body irritating cough.
Even after taking various cough medicines, cough is often not easy to control, and the cough will become heavier and more frequent;
2. Blood in sputum: The reason why cancers can continue to grow is because there are a large number of blood vessels distributed inside the tumor, which can provide sufficient oxygen and nutrients for cancer cells.
However, the blood vessels inside the tumor are chaotic, twisted and fragile. When a patient has a severe cough, under the influence of pressure and impact, the blood vessels can easily rupture, resulting in the appearance of blood capillaries in the patient's sputum.
Not only that, some cancers will also necrosis due to lack of nutrient supply, which will also cause symptoms such as hemoptysis and blood in sputum;
3, inexplicable hoarseness: there are many factors that appear in hoarseness, such as common laryngitis, colds, acute bronchitis, etc., which may cause hoarseness.
However, this type of hoarseness resolves after symptomatic treatment, while lung cancer is different. Hoarseness caused by lung cancer is associated with cancer growth and lymphatic metastasis of cancer cells.
When the enlarged cancer or lymph nodes compress the patient's left recurrent laryngeal nerve, it will cause hoarseness, and the patient's condition often develops very rapidly, the medication control is not ideal, and even in the short term, it may develop into a state of voice loss, especially in patients with central lung cancer;
4. Fever symptoms: In China's clinic, nearly 20 to 30% of lung cancer patients have symptoms of fever at the same time as coughing.
There are two main types of fever caused by lung cancer, the first is that lung cancer is combined with respiratory tract infections, resulting in inflammatory fever, which is common in patients with central lung cancer. The second type is cancerous fever induced by the absorption of cancerous necrotic tissue by the body.
If similar symptoms have appeared frequently recently, especially if there is a long-term cough and symptoms of blood in sputum, it is likely that lung cancer has found itself, or even has reached the middle and advanced stages, and needs to be examined in time.
In addition, it should be emphasized here that the initial symptoms of lung cancer are not typical, so it is also necessary to conduct regular lung cancer screening for people with a family history of lung cancer, a history of chronic lung disease, and a history of occupational exposure.