Symptoms of lung cancer
Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy is a condition that affects some people with lung cancer. It most often causes inflammation of bones and joints in the wrists and ankles. Another common symptom is clubbing of the fingers.
Last reviewed: 07 Oct 2025
Next review due: 06 Oct 2028
Lung cancer starts in the windpipe (trachea), the main airway (bronchus) or the lung tissue. Cancer that starts in the lung is called primary lung cancer.
Your treatment depends on several factors. These include what type of lung cancer you have, how big it is and whether it has spread (the stage). It also depends on your general health.
Metastatic lung cancer means that the cancer has spread from where it started in the lung to other parts of the body. It is also called advanced lung cancer.
Lung cancer doesn't always cause symptoms in its early stages. Symptoms can include a cough that won't go away, coughing up blood and breathlessness.
Mesothelioma is a cancer that most commonly starts in the sheets of skin-like tissue that cover each lung (the pleura). More rarely it starts in the sheet of tissue in the abdomen that covers the digestive system organs (the peritoneum).
Lung cancer starts in the windpipe (trachea), the main airway (bronchus) or the lung tissue. Cancer that starts in the lung is called primary lung cancer.
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