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You may not have any symptoms of lung cancer, or you may have symptoms such as a cough or shortness of breath that you think are related to a respiratory illness. As a result, only about 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed early when treatment is most effective
There is currently no approved screening test for lung cancer.
Most lung cancers do not cause any symptoms until they have spread too far to be cured, but symptoms do occur in some people with early disease. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:
- a cough that gets worse or does not go away
- chest pain that is often worse with deep breathing, coughing, or laughing
- hoarseness
- weight loss and loss of appetite
- bloody or rust-colored sputum (spit or phlegm)
- shortness of breath
- recurring infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia
- new onset of wheezing
When lung cancer spreads to distant organs, it may cause:
- bone pain
- neurologic changes (such as headache, weakness or numbness of a limb, dizziness, or recent onset of a seizure)
- jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
- lumps near the surface of the body, due to cancer spreading to the skin or to lymph nodes (collections of immune system cells) in the neck or above the collarbone
Lung Cancer Unit
Moores UCSD Cancer Center
3855 Health Sciences Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093
(866) 773-2703 |