Lung Cancer Causes Shoulder Pain for Several Reasons

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  1. Dropping of one eyelid.
  2. A small /smaller pupil occurs in that eye.
  3. Absent (loss) or decreased sweating on one side of the face (typically on the same side where other symptoms mentioned before occur).

These symptoms also can be found in people without lung cancer.

Metastasis of lung cancer

This cancer can spread anywhere. But it is likely to spread to particular places in the body. These include liver, bones, brain, nearby lymph nodes, and adrenal glands – causing secondary cancers in these places which some may cause shoulder pain, too.

Swollen liver

Again, the pain in the shoulder doesn’t always originate in the shoulder. Pain in the elsewhere of the body can spread to the shoulder (referred pain, as noted before).

Secondary liver cancer that spread from primary lung cancer can cause enlarged liver, stretching the capsule surrounding it and causing pain. This may also be strong enough to put extra pressure on the nerves that line to the shoulder, causing referred shoulder pain.

Bone pain

Secondary bone cancer derived from primary lung cancer can be painful.  The pain usually starts with tenderness in the affected bone. This develops gradually and over time can lead to a persistent ache.

Any bone (including bones in the shoulder) can be affected. But the cancer is likely to affect particular bones such as long bones of upper arms and legs.

The symptoms that appear are not enough to diagnose cancer in the bone since they are also attributed by some different conditions. For instance, pain in the bone can be mistaken for arthritis.

How about cancer treatment side effects?

The lung cancer treatments are other things that can be a lot to cope with! While the treatment is necessary, each treatment also carries the risk of complications.

Pain is a common side effect of many cancer treatments. But shoulder pain is quite rare to be associated with the treatments for lung cancer.

Shoulder pain linked to lung cancer is manageable and treatable. The treatment is dependent upon the underlying cause.

For instances, if it is due to the large size of cancerous tumor that affects nerves in the shoulder, surgery can be used to remove the tumor or reduce the size of tumor. If it is linked to secondary bone cancer, radiotherapy may be the common choice to help control the cancer and ease the symptom.

Citations /references:

  1. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/shoulderpain/Pages/introduction.aspx
  2. http://www.koreamed.org/SearchBasic.php?RID=1047KJP/2008.21.2.164&DT=1

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