Clinical features
The most frequent symptoms of lung cancer are -:
- Cough – dry or productive of phlegm or blood (haemoptysis – coughing up blood)
- Chest pain
- Breathlessness
- Weight loss
- Hoarse voice
Other disturbing symptoms of late lung cancer or coexistent disease such as emphysema from smoking include -:
- Breathlessness – this may occur at rest and require home oxygen
- Symptoms of metastatic disease
Occasionally lung cancer is found during a chest x-ray done for some other reason but this is unusual and there is no National Screening Programme for lung cancer to pick up early disease because to date there is insufficient evidence of the efficacy of screening for lung cancer.
Pancoast Tumour
This is a special name for lung cancer in the upper part of the right lung. Pancoast tumours press on nerves running from the spinal cord to the arm called the brachial plexus. The extra symptoms from Pancoast tumours include severe pain in the right arm, shoulder and upper back and ‘Horner’s syndrome’. ‘Horner’s syndrome’ is a collection of symptoms caused by pressure on the nerves. The symptoms are a drooping right eyelid, small pupil and absence of sweating on the right cheek. The other symptoms and the treatment of Pancoast tumour follow the lung cancer cell type of the Pancoast tumour – they are usually squamous cell carcinomas.
Click here for details of -:
Amended June 2008
