Coughing is a very common symptom, from small colds and choking on water to lung cancer and severe infections. Some people say that there is cancer in the lungs and coughing is prophetic, so what is the difference between lung cancer's cough and other coughs? How to recognize if you have lung cancer cough?

What is the difference between lung cancer cough and other coughs?

Nothing fundamentally different. Don't put a lung cancer diagnosis on yourself just because you have a cough. A cough is not necessarily lung cancer, and lung cancer does not always come with a cough. Coughing is actually a protective reflex response of the body. When there is a foreign body stimulation in the airway, it may be the inflammatory reaction caused by pathogens, or congestion and edema caused by allergy, or the stimulation of tumor itself, or even the problem of heart or pleura, which may stimulate the airway to produce coughing. There is also a slight difference in cough caused by lung cancer compared with ordinary cough, which is not absolute and can be used for your reference.

(1) Persistent

General cough caused by infection or allergy will be reduced gradually as the inflammatory reaction subsides, but lung cancer is different, it may last for more than three weeks or even several months, and may get worse.

(2) Coughing up blood

General upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis and pneumonia have less possibility of coughing up blood, while the incidence of coughing up blood in lung cancer is higher, and it may be just a small amount of blood. But it is not that all lung cancers cough up blood.

(3) Poor treatment effect

Generally speaking, if the cough is caused by infection or allergy, there will be obvious improvement after using antibacterial drugs or anti-allergy drugs, and if all kinds of treatments are ineffective, then we should be alert to the cause of tumor.

(4) Accompanied by other suspicious symptoms

Lung cancer cough may be accompanied by weight loss, lymph node swelling, persistent fever, persistent chest pain, shoulder pain, back pain, shortness of breath, hoarseness and other symptoms.

The cough caused by lung cancer is slightly different from other coughs, but it should be reminded that coughing symptom alone is far from being able to diagnose lung cancer, and it needs to be diagnosed by CT, puncture and other pathological tests, which, in a word, can only be relied on if it is diagnosed through professional doctor's examination and diagnosis.