These feelings may not be unfamiliar to everyone:
- When you have a sore throat, you may feel some large and painful lumps on your neck. After the scratch on the arm is infected, such a lump may also be felt under the armpit. This lump can also be found in the groin (the junction of the thigh and lower abdomen) when the leg wound is infected.
This is the manifestation of lymph node’s [struggle] with nearby virus or bacterial infection, which can resist the invasion of infection.
The swelling of lymph nodes when the body is infected has typical symptoms of redness, swelling and heat pain. However, most cancers do not have these signs when they occur.
It is very cunning, at least in the early stage of the disease, will not be easily detected.
Therefore, if painless lymph node enlargement is found in the neck, chin, armpit or groin, be more careful.
Usually, only when the tumor tissue grows large enough to affect or damage the surrounding healthy tissue can there be obvious signs and symptoms. The top five high-mortality cancers in the United States in 2015 all meet this feature.
1. Lung cancer
In 2015, lung cancer once again became the cancer with the highest mortality rate in the United States.
For people who smoke for a long time, the manifestations of lung cancer may be similar to the symptoms of some common lung injury diseases.
If you find yourself with these symptoms, you should go to the hospital for examination:
- Cough lasts for several weeks and does not heal. Shortness of breath; Inflammation recurs (such as bronchitis and pneumonia); Hemoptysis; Chest pain.
The cause of chest pain may be that the tumor stimulates or blocks normal lung tissue. During the continuous development of lung cancer, it will gradually compress or invade surrounding tissues or nerves, resulting in persistent pain in the chest or shoulder when breathing deeply or coughing, or pain when breathing calmly.
2. Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death for adult cancer patients in the United States.
As its tumor tissue grows into the intestinal cavity, it has no feeling at first. Only when it grows large enough will it cause obvious symptoms:
- Found stool thinning; A lump in the abdomen; Abdominal pain.
The rectum is only next to the anus. It is usually found during routine physical examination, during anal finger examination, when the doctor finds blood on the finger cuff or touches a nodular lump in the rectum.
However, even so, many patients still think it is the hemorrhage caused by hemorrhoids and do not pay attention to it.
Therefore, in case of this kind of situation, we should be cautious and need further inspection to make it clear.
3. Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer ranks third in the list of cancer deaths.
Due to its hidden onset location, there are often no signs or symptoms before the cancer develops to advanced stage.
However, if these symptoms occur, great attention should be paid to them:
- Painless jaundice (white eyes or yellow skin): Because growing tumors can block the normal circulation of bile. Benign pancreatic diseases may also have jaundice manifestations, but usually have pain and fever. Back pain: Some pancreatic tumors can compress or invade nearby nerves, causing pain in the deep upper abdomen and even affecting the back, resulting in back pain.
4. Breast cancer
The fourth place is breast cancer.
The main manifestations of breast cancer are:
- Growing painless and hard masses: Most benign masses with effusion, i.e. Cysts, are soft when pressed. It can occur in any part of the breast, deep or shallow. Even in axillary lymph nodes, causing painless swelling; Non-lactation nipples secrete fluid.
Even if routine mammography and other breast examinations have been performed, if these conditions occur, they need to be examined again for confirmation.
5. Prostate cancer
More than 220,000 U.S. Men are expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, which is the fifth most common cause of cancer death. The tumor tissue of prostate cancer can grow considerably large in the gland before causing symptoms, suggesting the need for regular annual screening.
Large tumor tissue will eventually affect urethral excretion, thus showing these symptoms:
- Frequency of urination; Urination; Unclean urine; Night urination.
Although benign prostatic hyperplasia also has these manifestations, if one or more of the above symptoms are found, one should go to the hospital for screening.
It should be noted that if any cancer spreads to the bone, the bone will also show obvious pain. In addition, cancer can also cause weight loss, and some are even found to cause thrombosis.
Therefore, for lung, colorectal, prostate and breast organs, regular screening and physical examination should be carried out to ensure [early detection].
If you find yourself with some persistent symptoms that are difficult to explain, you must go to the hospital for perfect examination.
Responsible Editor: Jing Liu