symptoms of lung cancer

I have a family member who is 53 and has smoked about three packs of cigarettes a day since she was 16. She has had numerous bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis and even a lung abcess (abscess) over the years. Lately, she has developed a really bad cough...it's so bad at times that she gags and coughs up sputum. I asked her if there has ever been any blood in the sputum and she says no, that it just looks light brown and she attributes that to the nicotine from the cigarettes. Her mom died of small cell lung cancer last summer. Does this sound like lung cancer to you and do you think she needs a chest X-ray? Her mom didn't have lung symptoms before her cancer was diagnosed. Her mom's symptoms were abdominal pain from metastasis to the liver and pancreas....