Cancer symptoms are sometimes vague and non-specific, resulting in a late diagnosis. There were four prevalent “bodily sensations” that preceded a lung cancer diagnosis, according to a retrospective review of self-reported symptoms.

Cancer has a worse survival rate than other diseases because early indications are usually ignored. This buys cancer valuable time to spread, lowering treatment efficacy. This is especially true with lung cancer, which has a host of obscure symptoms that are frequently misdiagnosed as less serious illnesses.

According to a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, there are a “multitude of bodily sensations that are often non-specific, not easily understood, and many times initially not recognised as indicative of lung cancer by the affected person”.

The researchers cautioned that this frequently leads to late diagnosis.

To address this issue, they aimed to determine which physical sensations are more prevalent in cancer patients prior to diagnosis.

Although it is difficult to ascribe physiological feelings to cancer, discovering trends among cancer patients helps to bolster the case that a particular bodily sense is caused by cancer.

The researchers looked back at the medical records of 61 persons who had been diagnosed with lung cancer in Denmark, England, and Sweden.

According to the researchers, four body responses stood out:

• Tiredness
• Breathlessness
• Pain
• Cough.

Common symptoms of cancer to spot

There are more than 200 different forms of cancer, each with its own set of symptoms. Symptoms are sometimes linked to certain cancer kinds.

There are several common cancer signs to be aware of, and it’s critical to keep an eye out for them.

According to experts, general signs include weight loss, tiredness (fatigue) or unexplained pain.

Are you at risk?

Cancer can strike anyone, but there are some conditions that place you at a higher risk.

It is not a guarantee that you will develop cancer if you have one or more risk factors. Also, just because you don’t have any risk factors doesn’t guarantee you won’t get cancer.

“For most people, increasing age is the biggest risk factor for developing cancer,” adds Macmillan Cancer Support.

The single most modifiable risk factor for cancer is smoking, which causes more than one in every four cancer deaths (almost 25%) in the United States, according to the organization.

“Breathing in other people’s smoke (passive smoking) also increases your risk of developing cancer,” the health body adds.

Furthermore, being overweight raises the chance of malignancies of the colon, kidney, womb, and gullet (oesophagus), according to the study.

BMI of 25 to 29.9 means that you’re too fat for your size.

BMI is a metric that determines whether or not you have a healthy weight for your height. It’s the most common way to see if you’re at a healthy weight.

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