Thursday, July 16, 2009

Lung Cancer Symptoms Reviews & Tips

By Anne Durrell

One of the biggest obstacles with diagnosing lung cancer is that many patients do not have any lung cancer symptoms until the cancer is in advanced stages.

Knowledge of lung cancer symptoms is important for everyone but most especially for those at high risk. Those individuals should contact their physician at once if they have any suspicion that they may have lung cancer.

Unseen Disease

Lung cancer in it's earlier stages can go unnoticed. Usually symptoms will appear when the tumor has grown or the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Sometimes lung cancer will be detected when an x-ray of the chest is done for some other complaint.

The problem with lung cancer not exhibiting symptoms early is that as the disease grows it gets more difficult to treat and the likelihood of it spreading to other parts of the body grows.

Symptoms may show up but could be dismissed as a chest cold or some other common respiratory illness. Ignoring the symptoms or trying to treat them as a simple virus can lead to late discovery and spread of the disease.

Signs

You know what it feels like to have a common virus or infection. Lung cancer symptoms are usually similar and can include:

* Ongoing cough

* Chest discomfort

* Shortness of breath

Being informed and aware is the best way to catch lung cancer symptoms early. Watch out for the following:

* If you smoke or used to smoke and you suddenly develop a new cough

* A cough that just will not go away no matter what medication you use to treat it.

* Chest pain that does not go away

* Gasping

* Raspy voice

* Repeated respiratory illness

Lung cancer symptoms can also vary depending on the type of cancer. Metastatic lung cancer tumors may react differently in the body and cause different symptoms. They can spread to the adrenal glands, the bones and even the brain. Most do not cause any symptoms.

The high death rate of lung cancer is due in large part to the fact that it is very difficult to diagnosis in the early stages of the disease. - 14130

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