Can a dry cough from lung cancer get better?

Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
Updated on June 29, 2025
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Dry cough caused by lung cancer may be alleviated with appropriate medication for some patients in clinical settings. However, a dry cough caused by lung cancer is often due to the size and location of the tumor. If the tumor is not effectively removed, patients may experience chronic symptoms such as dry cough. Therefore, even after surgery, the symptom of dry cough may persist for those with lung cancer. For cases like early-stage lung cancer, if the tumor is removed early, some patients may see significant improvement in their dry cough. However, for those with advanced-stage lung cancer, dry cough may continue even after the tumor tissue has been removed, making dry cough caused by lung cancer generally difficult to cure in clinical practice.

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Written by Hu Zhong Dong
Medical Oncology
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Causes of Lung Cancer

The most common cause of lung cancer is smoking, but many people who have never smoked also develop lung cancer. One possible reason could be related to kitchen fumes. Chinese cooking habits often involve high-temperature frying and stir-frying. After frying in hot oil, the higher the temperature, the more harmful substances are in the fumes, which over time could lead to lung cancer. Some patients develop lung cancer due to air pollution; secondhand smoke is also a significant cause. For example, if a husband smokes, the likelihood of his wife developing lung cancer is more than 200% higher than in the general population, indicating that smoking harms not only the smoker but also their nearest and dearest family members. Additionally, there are other potential causes including psychosomatic factors such as chronic insomnia, depression, decreased immunity, genetic factors, and more.

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Written by Gong Chun
Oncology
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How is lung cancer diagnosed?

Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors and falls under respiratory system diseases. The gold standard for the diagnosis of malignant tumors is biopsy. Thus, lung cancer is no exception; it requires a biopsy and immunohistochemistry to determine the type of cancer and its pathological type. So how is the biopsy obtained? We can use a bronchoscope to directly observe the tumor and collect small tissue samples for pathological examination. Additionally, there is the thoracic wall lung puncture biopsy, where tissue from the tumor can be sampled using a fine needle. These samples are observed under a microscope to differentiate the pathological types and to further confirm the diagnosis.

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Written by Yang Feng
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Symptoms of malignant transformation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Firstly, cancer transformation is not the main complication of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but both COPD and lung cancer share a common cause, which is smoking. Therefore, COPD and lung cancer are generally considered two different diseases, and the symptoms of COPD combined with lung cancer are mainly those of lung cancer, typically including irritating dry cough, blood-streaked sputum, weight loss, etc. Thus, lung imaging studies can be used to preliminarily determine the possibility of cancer in patients, and further diagnostic steps can be chosen based on the patient’s imaging and related symptoms, including biopsy, bronchoscopy, etc.

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Written by An Yong Peng
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Can early-stage lung cancer cause shoulder pain?

In the early stages of lung cancer, it generally does not cause shoulder pain. Early-stage lung cancer often does not involve critical structures and typically does not produce noticeable clinical symptoms. However, a small number of central lung cancers may cause symptoms related to coughing. Moreover, shoulder pain can occur in cases of lung cancer, often seen in superior sulcus tumors. A superior sulcus tumor, also known as a Pancoast tumor, is a tumor located at the top of the lung. As the tumor grows, it may compress the brachial plexus nerves, leading to symptoms such as shoulder pain and throat pain. It can also cause symptoms like enophthalmos (sunken eyeball) and pupil constriction. Therefore, when encountering these signs clinically, it is necessary to consider the possibility of a superior sulcus tumor and conduct examinations like a chest CT scan for evaluation.

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Does early-stage lung cancer cause facial swelling?

Patients with early-stage lung cancer generally do not experience facial swelling. This is because early-stage lung cancers mainly include carcinoma in situ and stage I lung cancer. At this stage, the cancer tissue is confined to the mucosa, without invasion of the surrounding tissues or distant metastasis. Therefore, the clinical symptoms of patients with early-stage lung cancer primarily involve the respiratory system. Clinical symptoms mainly include coughing, often a dry cough without phlegm, or coughing up phlegm with blood, hemoptysis, and massive hemoptysis. Some patients may experience chest pain, or have a barking cough, or a metallic-sounding cough. Some patients may have shortness of breath after physical activity, and severe cases can experience breathing difficulties. In most cases, patients do not exhibit other clinical changes. However, as the disease progresses, and there is invasion into surrounding tissues, or distant metastases occur, symptoms of invasion into surrounding tissues or distant metastatic sites may appear. For example, metastasis to the cervical lymph nodes can cause enlarged lymph nodes, or compression of the superior vena cava by the patient, resulting in swelling of the face and neck.