Once upon a time, there was a terrifying saying on the Internet: "Long-term non-forming, deformation, and continuous diarrhea of stools are the signals of cancer!" ”
Is this really the case?
Let's talk about this topic today!
What is "diarrhea?"
Simply put, diarrhea is commonly known as diarrhea, which refers to defecation more than 3 times a day, or more fat in the stool, or with undigested food, mucus, and pus.
It can be divided into two types: acute and chronic:
1. Acute diarrhea
It is more common in intestinal infections, food poisoning, hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis, acute localized enteritis, and intestinal purpura.
The most common is caused by unclean diet and irregular diet, that is, "eating bad stomach".
There is also the fact that taking certain medications can also cause diarrhea, which can disappear when stopped.
2. Chronic diarrhea
If you are more than 2 months old, consider two aspects:
First, gastrointestinal diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome, intestinal infections, inflammatory bowel diseases, intestinal tumors, gastric diseases, pancreatic diseases and hepatobiliary diseases;
The second is systemic diseases, such as endocrine and metabolic disorders, other systemic diseases, adverse drug reactions and neurological disorders.
It can be seen that acute diarrhea has little to do with cancer; persistent, intermittent and lingering diarrhea needs to be paid great attention to.
What cancers may be associated with long-term diarrhea?
Long-term chronic diarrhea, in fact, most of them are benign diseases. For example, the following:
1. Irritable bowel syndrome,
2. Inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis,
3. Intestinal colony disorders,
4. Benign gastrointestinal diseases, such as gastritis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, chronic hepatitis, etc.
Of course, some tumors can also have diarrhea! We call it cancerous diarrhea.
However, diarrhea and cancer are linked, and there can be no isolated symptom alone, because malignant tumors are often accompanied by a symptom group, and different organs have their own specificities.
If you have long-term diarrhea or diarrhea accompanied by the following symptoms, it may be a sign of some cancer, be sure to seek medical attention in time, find out the cause, and receive correct diagnosis and treatment.
1. Colorectal cancer
Features: diarrhea or diarrhea, constipation alternately, changes in stool traits, or pus and blood, abdominal pain, etc
People with regular bowel movements suddenly become frequent or significantly reduced in the frequency of stools, constipation and diarrhea alternate, diarrhea after getting up in the morning, thinning of stools, grooves, etc., especially accompanied by mucus bloody stools, pus bloody stools, blood in the stool is bright red or jam-colored, etc., or unexplained anemia, emaciation, weakness, high vigilance.
Examination recommendations: fecal occult blood test, colonoscopy.
2. Stomach cancer
Features: diarrhea with nausea, acid reflux, stomach pain, black stool, etc
The early manifestations of stomach cancer are often very similar to general stomach diseases, difficult to distinguish, and easy to be ignored.
If there is sudden unexplained diarrhea, black stools, accompanied by loss of appetite, weakness, nausea and vomiting, burning sensation in the stomach, and hidden pain in the upper abdomen, the possibility of tumors should be considered.
Especially people over 40 years old, if they have similar symptoms, they must be vigilant!
Examination recommendations: gastroscopy, tumor marker screening.
3. Liver cancer
Features: Diarrhea with epigastric pain
In liver cancer patients, there is no shortage of cases of diarrhea as the first symptom.
Some people have found in the statistics of 3254 cases of liver cancer that diarrhea is the first symptom of 5.8%.
The cause of diarrhea is that liver cancer cells in the process of division and proliferation, can produce gastrin, vasoactive peptides, prostaglandin F2 and other substances, mast cells are stimulated by these substances, will proliferate and release too much histamine, prompting the intestinal mucosal vascular wall permeability increased, intestinal secretion increased and cause diarrhea.
Therefore, middle-aged and elderly people, especially patients with chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis, have discomfort in the upper right side of the abdomen, enlargement of the liver area, stuffiness and gradual aggravation, or loss of appetite and gradual emaciation, should go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible.
Examination recommendations: serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), ultrasound B, CT.
4. Pancreatic cancer
Features: long-term epigastric discomfort, chronic diarrhea, jaundice
Pancreatic cancer patients have diarrhea is relatively common, pancreatic cancer incidence is not high, but the degree of malignancy is very high, generally until the time of diagnosis is mostly advanced, survival period is mostly 6 months to 1 year or so, short survival of patients even after diagnosis is expected to be less than 3 months.
The cause of diarrhea caused by pancreatic cancer is mainly caused by the self-digestion of trypsin by pancreatic tissue.
Under normal circumstances, the original trypsin in the pancreatic juice is inactive, and it has the effect of digesting proteins after it flows into the duodenum and is activated by the intestinal kinase in the bile and intestinal fluid.
Some patients with chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer develop diarrhea due to insufficient pancreatic secretion.
Therefore, symptoms such as unexplained epigastric discomfort, repeated diarrhea, steary diarrhea, indigestion, pain in the lower back, jaundice caused by non-gallstones, and unexplained weight loss should be taken seriously.
Examination recommendations: MRI, CT, endoscopy.
5. Lung cancer
The most typical symptoms of lung cancer are chronic cough, chest pain, etc., but there are also a small number of people who will have diarrhea.
Recommended examination: CT chest
brief summary:
In fact, diarrhea is a very common symptom and generally does not appear as a manifestation of cancer.
Because the symptoms of cancer do not appear alone, and they do not necessarily have diarrhea as the first symptom. Therefore, it cannot be used as an alarm signal for some kind of cancer, and it is reliable to have an annual physical examination!
Once there is long-term diarrhea, it does not improve after standardized treatment, or accompanied by other systemic symptoms, it is necessary to arouse high vigilance and actively seek help from the standardized medical unit.
For some frequent diarrhea, to find out the cause, to consider functional bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, the cause is not clear, may be related to eating habits, mental psychological pressure, food intolerance, gastrointestinal motility abnormalities are related, belongs to a functional lesion, can be self-regulation, dietary attention, take probiotics to regulate.
Source | Gastrointestinal diseases