Symptoms of Lung Cancer

Like many other things, the symptoms of lung cancer vary depending on where the lung cancer is, the stage of the cancer, and how widespread the cancer is. Unfortunately, as many as 25% of people who develop lung cancer do not have any symptoms and therefore these people do not get their lungs checked until their routine chest X-ray of CT scan.

There are many symptoms of lung cancer that are specific to this type of cancer. These symptoms are coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain, and coughing up blood.  If the lung cancer is metastasis then it might have spread to the bones or the brain. If this is the case then the symptoms would include excruciating pain in the sites of bone movement, blurred vision, headaches, seizures, or strokes.

If the cancer is accompanied by symptoms that are caused by an increase in hormone-like substances by tumor cells then the symptoms are considered to be paraneoplastic. The paraneoplastic syndromes are most common in SCLC (it can be in other types). This causes an increase in the hormone called adrenocorticotrophic hormone. If the paraneoplastic syndrome is in NSCLC then the most frequent symptom is the production of a substance similar to parathyroid hormone. This causes an increase in levels of calcium in the bloodstream.

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