Early signs of lung cancer include intense coughing, pain in the chest, changes in the color or volume of your saliva, blood in your saliva and shortness of breath that has caused bronchitis or pneumonia several times in a short period. Smokers and nonsmokers can experience these changes. See a doctor if a cough lasts for more than two weeks and is not related to cold symptoms. Lung cancer also can be accompanied by pain in the shoulders, upper back and neck.
Time Frame
An early sign of lung cancer can be a cough that doesn't go away and gets worse over time. There can be constant chest pain, which leads to coughing up blood and shortness of breath, wheezing or hoarseness. Some victims experience pneumonia or bronchitis.
Effects
A loss of weight and appetite also are early signs of lung cancer. There may also be swelling in the neck.
Warning
Lug cancer symptoms vary. Many people with lung cancer don't have any early symptoms. As many as 25 percent of patients diagnosed with lung cancer had not displayed any early symptoms, according to the National Cancer Institute. There are even people in advanced stages who did not have symptoms.
Other Signs
Other early lung cancer symptoms can include changes in the shape of your fingertips and swollen or enlarged lymph nodes in the upper chest and lower neck.
Blood Test
A blood test may be able to identify lung cancer in its early stages, long before the disease becomes untreatable, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany have used fingerprint analysis to identify lung cancer patients with 86 percent accuracy
