Symptoms of lung cancer in women and when to see a doctor

ahsan65@gmail.comJune 26, 2025

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Symptoms of lung cancer in women and when to see a doctor

There are two main types of lung cancer – lung cancer with small cells (SCLC) and lung cancer not with small cells (NSCLC) – and each type is divided into subtypes.

Overall, the symptoms of lung cancer do not differ much depending on the type, but there can be occasional differences at the time when the symptoms appear for the first time.

SCLC

The SCLC is almost always linked to smoking.

Based on what this cancer is like a microscope, the SCLC is divided into small cell carcinoma (tumors in small cancer cells) and combined carcinoma with small cells (tumors made of small cancer cells and cancer cells of the lung not in small place).

The grouping of these forms of cancer in this way helps scientists to better distinguish the differences between them and help to shed light on treatment strategies.

RSCLC

The RSCLC represents up to 90% of all cases of lung cancer. This type of cancer generally develops more slowly than the SCLC and causes some symptoms or not before its spread, it therefore tends to be diagnosed after having already advanced.

There are three main NSCLC subtypes:

Adenocarcinoma

Large cell undifferentiated carcinoma

Epider cell lung cancer

Adenocarcinoma is the most common subtype of lung cancer in the United States, representing 45% of all cases. It is also the type of cancer that is more widespread in women than men.

It develops more mainly in non-smokers, although smokers also develop adenocarcinoma.

“The symptoms of adenocarcinoma and other types of lung cancer often overlap,” says Velez. She says adenocarcinoma tends to start in the external parts of the lung, which can delay the appearance of revealing cough symptoms. “Thus, women can later have symptoms linked to metastatic propagation rather than primary pulmonary symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath.”

Large -cell undifferentiated carcinoma represents approximately 10 to 15% of all cases of NSCLC lung cancer. It can start in any part of the lung and spreads faster than other NSCLC subtypes. He is strongly associated with smoking.

Epidermoid lung cancer tends to start in the center of the lung, next to the main respiratory tract, and is also associated with smoking. It tends to be more common in men than women.