Doctors warn that one of the warning signs of lung cancer can appear right on your fingertips. Lung cancer is extremely dangerous mainly because symptoms often do not appear until the cancer cells have spread throughout the body. But there are some early warning signs you can spot, reports The .
Common symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing and a persistent cough where you may cough up blood or mucus. Although most symptoms are respiratory in nature, one early indicator appears on the fingers.
When you put the nails of both hands together (back to back), do you see the little diamond shaped gap between them that the light passes through? If you do not see this gap, you may suffer from the so-called club-shaped fingers (so-called finger clubbing). This is a condition where the fingertips swell, which can signal lung cancer.
This condition occurs in several stages. The first is that the base of the nail starts to soften. Then the skin near the nail bed starts to shine. Later, the nails start to curve more than usual when viewed from the side and eventually, the fingertips may become enlarged and swollen due to the accumulation of fluid in the soft tissues.
Although a missing gap between your nails does not automatically mean you have cancer, it is a potential symptom that you should consult with your doctor. “Go to the doctor with anything that’s bothering you. Go as soon as you can,” advises patient Brian Gemmell, whose only symptom was fingers like these. However, lung cancer manifests itself differently in everyone. Some patients have multiple symptoms, others none.
Key symptoms to look out for include: a persistent cough that lasts three weeks or more, a change in the cough or its worsening, coughing up blood or blood in the mucus, shortness of breath and wheezing, and frequent chest infections. Also look out for chest or shoulder pain, hoarseness, unexplained fatigue and lack of energy, or swelling of the face or neck.
If you notice any of these symptoms, don’t delay seeing a doctor. Early diagnosis means earlier treatment and better prospects for recovery.
