If the symptoms of lung cancer can be detected early, then the disease wouldn’t be as deadly as it is commonly known. The inability of medical personnel and individual victims to detect the presence of the disease at the very inception makes the disease to be deadly.
The fatality of the disease is not in the name, but in its hidden nature. For instance, if malaria symptoms do not show up at the early stage, the parasite of the malaria will spread to the whole body and becomes a threat to the life of the victim. Malaria is also a deadly disease, but the difference there is that the symptoms are easily detected before the disease advances to a more serious stage. Unlike lung cancer, the chances of detecting the symptoms early are very less.
However, the symptoms of lung cancer vary between different people; about 50% of people who have lung cancer are former smokers, and about 15-20% have never smoked yet they have the cancer. The symptoms between those that smoke and those that doesn’t smoke might vary, although many people do not have the symptoms in the early stage while some people are lucky enough to see the symptoms early before the disease aggravates. Perhaps it is those that doesn’t smoke that have more chances of seeing the symptoms early.
Moreover, early symptoms of lung cancer include the following:
Chronic cough:
Sometimes coughing can be attributed to other ailments, but the difference is seen when the cough persists and does not show any sign of relief even when medications have been taken.
Pains in the chest, shoulder and back:
These pains can be attributed to normal body pains, but when you are experiencing pains in the chest, shoulder, back and other close parts at the same time, you should not waste time in seeing your doctor because it could be an early sign of lung cancer.
Shortness of breath:
If you always experience short breath or face difficulty in breathing especially when you are not engaged in any energy activity, I think it is an early sign of lung cancer.
Other early symptoms include loss of weight, headache, coughing out blood, tiredness, and loss of energy. These early symptoms are very rare when cancer is at early stage but if you are experiencing anyone of these, you should report to your doctor immediately.