3. Persistent Cough or Hoarseness
While a persistent cough is usually dismissed as a nagging cold or bronchitis, a cough that lasts for weeks and doesn’t get better can be a symptom of lung cancer. This is especially true if the cough is associated with chest pain, shortness of breath, or blood in the mucus (hemoptysis). Separately, persistent hoarseness that lasts longer than three weeks can be an early sign of larynx (voice box) cancer, thyroid cancer, or lung cancer affecting the nerves to the larynx.
