At an advanced stage, lung cancer causes very suggestive symptoms.
The actress and director Isabelle Mergault died of lung cancer that metastasized to the liver on March 20, 2026. She was 67 years old. Around 50,000 new cases of lung cancer are recorded each year in France. It is the deadliest cancer in men, and the second in women. While tobacco is responsible for 8 out of 10 lung cancers, there are other risk factors, including exposure to asbestos and air pollution. The diagnosis is made using medical imaging and then performing a biopsy. It is a very common cancer but often diagnosed late.
There are four stages of lung cancer: cancer located in the thorax, small and operable (stages 1 and 2); locally advanced cancer (stage 3): “These are cancers which invade the mediastinum but which do not have metastases. They require several treatments: surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and/or radiotherapy”tells us Professor Sebastien Couraud, head of the specialized acute pulmonology and thoracic oncology department at Lyon University Hospital; and metastatic cancer (stage 4). In this case, metastases have migrated to other organs.
The presence of metastases will cause additional symptoms for the patient. The most common is a very hard, indurated and painful lymph node. It may also involve epileptic seizures and severe dizziness in cases of brain metastases. Bone pain, which can be complicated by bone fractures, can also be indicative of the presence of metastases. Fracture of a vertebra can also cause compression of the spinal cord and cause paralysis. When present in the liver, metastases are likely to compress the bile ducts and cause jaundice.
Apart from these symptoms, the patient also experiences the symptoms of the primary cancer, where it initially started to develop, i.e. in the lungs. The symptoms of lung cancer are characteristic. There are symptoms linked to locoregional invasion (cough, voice change, shortness of breath, chest pain) and general symptoms linked to the fact that cancer is a systemic disease that affects the entire human body.
The person then presents a change in general condition with fatigue and weight loss. “This weight loss is linked to the fact that patients are not hungry and that cancer is a hyper-catabolic disease which will capture all of the body’s energy. Weight loss can occur quickly and exceed 10% of body weight. The occurrence of phlebitis or pulmonary embolism is also possible because cancer sometimes makes the blood hypercoagulable”concludes Professor Sébastien Couraud.
