The diagnosis of lung cancer is something that brings much anxiety and fear to the person as well as to the family members of the person. For years people have tried to see if perhaps a screening techniques could be found that would allow for the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer, but these efforts have failed to show a clear benefit. The desire, of course, is to try to find a lung cancer as early as possible in order to try as best to remove it surgically and thereby cure the person with the lung cancer.
Since screening techiques have not proven to be of benefit, we can then turn our attention to things that a person may exhibit which may give us a clue about the possibility that he or she may have lung cancer.
We need to keep in mind that the following list of possible findings or symptoms are much more important if the person who has these findings also has a history of having smoked cigarettes for many years. The list of findings are as follows:
1. PERSISTENT COUGH. A dry, hacking, persistent cough with little or no sputum production in a person who has smoked for many years is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer.
2. UNEXPLAINED WEIGHT LOSS. If someone is losing weight without trying. If he or she feels that they just “can’t seem to keep the weight on”, this is an important clue for the possibility of lung cancer. Of course, this clue is made more significant if the person who has the unexplained weight loss has been a smoker for years.
3. COUGH WITH THE PRODUCTION OF BLOODY SPUTUM. If someone has a cough that produces blood sometimes (or most of the time), this is an important clue to the possibility that that person may have lung cancer. Of course there are other things that can produce a cough with bloody sputum, but we should as well keep in mind lung cancer in someone who develops this finding.
4. CHEST PAIN. Although we always think of heart problems when someone has chest pain, we need to keep in mind that it is possible to have chest pain from a lung cancer that is growing in the chest.
All of the concepts and clues that we have reviewed above and more are covered in calm, easy to understand language in the Lung Cancer audio CD available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com