Lung cancer is one of the common malignant tumors, and its mortality rate has always ranked first in cancer mortality. When it comes to lung cancer, everyone will think of smoking. "Smoking is harmful to health" is a warning slogan that must be marked on the cigarette case. Smoking is harmful to health in many ways, the most direct of which is of course the damage to lung tissue. Passive smoking is as dangerous as smoking. Because it is not nicotine in tar that really causes damage and cancer to lung tissue, but other carcinogens in tobacco, such as benzopyrene. Nicotine can only make smokers addicted, and the smoke exhaled by smokers contains a lot of carcinogens. Therefore, people who work and live in the smoke around smokers for a long time are also high-risk groups of lung cancer. Besides smoking, urban industrialization and environmental pollution are also closely related to lung cancer.

There is no obvious specific lung cancer symptoms in the early stage of lung cancer. Those who didn't cough before have recently coughed, and have not recovered after treatment for more than two weeks, with blood in their sputum; Elderly patients with chronic bronchitis have a long-term cough, but recent changes in cough sounds or properties suggest the possibility of cancer. It is worth mentioning that some lung cancers do not take respiratory symptoms such as cough as the first symptom, but first appear symptoms outside the respiratory tract, such as joint pain and scapulohumeral periarthritis.

The early symptoms of lung cancer have the following seven aspects:

(1) Cough: About one-half to two-thirds of patients have cough as the first symptom;

(2) Hemoptysis: 1/3 ~ 1/2 patients have this symptom, most of them are sporadic bloodshot sputum, and about 1/3 patients take it as the first episode;

(3) Chest pain: one-third to three-fifths of patients have chest pain;

(4) Chest tightness and shortness of breath: one-tenth to one-half have this symptom;

(5) Fever: fever caused by obstructive pneumonia or cancerous fever;

(6) Symptoms caused by tumor metastasis account for about10%;

(7) Extrapulmonary symptoms: osteoarthropathy, ectopic endocrine syndrome. So be alert to these symptoms and go to the hospital in time if there are similar situations. Chest X-ray examination, sputum cytology examination, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, CT, magnetic resonance, percutaneous lung puncture, lymph node biopsy, thoracic puncture examination, tumor markers and other methods can be used. Early diagnosis of lung cancer plays a great role in the therapeutic effect.

Because lung cancer is a local manifestation of systemic diseases; At the time of clinical diagnosis, three-quarters of patients have lost the opportunity of surgery; Patients who can be operated also have small metastases; Different treatments for lung cancer have their own limitations and other factors. The treatment of lung cancer should not focus on local treatment or a certain treatment method. But according to patients' different disease stages, different tissue types, different tumor biological behaviors and general conditions, we should comprehensively use multidisciplinary treatment methods such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunology and traditional Chinese medicine to achieve the best treatment effect. It can be seen that the importance of lung cancer prevention is very great.

2. Late symptoms of lung cancer

The thoracic cavity is a very complicated space. Three quarters of the lung surface is surrounded by the chest wall, which consists 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.

A special area of the chest wall is formed at the top of the lung, that is, around the apex of the lung. Nerve fibers from the neck 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, this 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.

Nearly a quarter of the lung surface is adjacent to the so-called "mediastinum", which means "the middle part of the chest" and represents a space containing a series of living organs. The mediastinum is located directly behind the sternum and is considered as the "central area" in non-professional fields. The trachea and main bronchus pass through the mediastinum. The esophagus clings to the back of the trachea and extends downward through the trachea. The heart and its great vessels, as well as some great nerves related to life, also pass through this area. If the cancer has invaded the mediastinum, the following symptoms may appear:

● hoarseness is the most common symptom. 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;

● There is superior vena cava on the right side of mediastinum, which transfuses venous blood of upper limbs and head and neck 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. Invasion of pleura can cause pleural effusion, which is often bloody. A large amount of fluid accumulation can lead to shortness of breath. In addition, cancer invades the pleura and chest wall, which can cause persistent and severe chest pain.

5. The lung at the top of the upper lobe can invade and oppress the organs and tissues located at the upper thoracic orifice. Such as the first rib, subclavian artery and vein, brachial plexus nerve, cervical sympathetic nerve, etc. , severe chest pain, upper limb vein swelling, edema, arm pain and upper limb dyskinesia, ipsilateral upper eye and facial ptosis, pupil contraction, enophthalmos, facial anhidrosis and other cervical sympathetic nerve syndrome groups. After hematogenous metastasis of lung cancer, different symptoms are produced according to the invasion of organs.

Finally, almost all patients with lung cancer with regional spread have different degrees of shortness of breath. Normal tissue fluid produced by lung and myocardium is refluxed 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 tumors, their respiratory function is impaired, which leads to respiratory discomfort. At first, this discomfort only appeared during exercise, and finally it was felt even during rest.