Obviously, the cancer has undergone surgery, several courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and cancer cells can no longer be detected in the body. Patients are overjoyed to think that they have defeated cancer and will be able to live a safe and worry-free life afterwards.
However, it did not take long, or even just a month, for the cancer to recur and metastasize again, and targeted treatment for the cancer returned to its original point.
This condition abounds clinically in cancer treatment. Experts believe that the terrible thing about cancer is never cancer cells or cancerous swelling, but the metastasis, recurrence and invasion properties of cancer cells.
In general, the more malignant, the later the pathological stage, and the older the cancer patient, the more likely they are to relapse after treatment.
Recurrence is the first major prognosis barrier that patients need to cross. However, recurrence does not mean that the death of the patient has been pronounced, after all, the recurrence only means that the treatment must come back again, the earlier the recurrence is found and the treatment is actively carried out, the more favorable the disease can be controlled, even if the cancer cannot be completely defeated, the patient's quality of life and survival period will be improved.
So the question is, what should be done to find the cancer that has recurred?
1. Look at the symptoms
Not long after the end of treatment, the patient has symptoms similar to those seen in the diagnosis of cancer, or if the symptoms are more severe, which may be a sign of cancer recurrence.
To take a simple example, after the recurrence of liver cancer, patients may have liver pain, jaundice, anaglose nausea and other manifestations. In addition, when the cancer recurrence begins to develop, most patients with organ cancer will have similar symptoms, such as unexplained fever, weight loss, fatigue pain, bleeding, etc.;
2. Look at the signs
Most of the first steps in cancer recurrence and metastasis begin with the lymphatic system. Infiltrated cancer cells will gradually penetrate the walls of lymphatic vessels, and after shedding, they can enter the lymph nodes with lymph fluid, causing the lymph nodes to grow tumors of the same pathological type, prompting abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes.
Therefore, when a painless enlarged lymph node mass is found locally, it is necessary to seek medical examination at the first time, especially if the lymph nodes appearing in the neck, armpits and groin need to be vigilant;
3. Tumor marker screening
The so-called tumor markers actually refer to substances that are characterized by tumor cells or abnormal tumor cells, or special substances produced by the human body in response to tumor stimulation.
The tumor marker index is one of the items that patients regularly review after treatment, and different types of tumor markers correspond to different types of cancerous changes. If the tumor marker is exponentially elevated in subsequent re-examination, and it is significantly and gradually increased, it is likely to be a manifestation of cancer recurrence;
4. Imaging examination
The more high-incidence types of cancer in the mainland are actually cancerous internal organs, including lung cancer, digestive tract cancer, liver cancer, urinary system cancer and so on.
The most indispensable examination method for such cancerous recurrence is actually imaging screening, which includes CT, ultrasound and MRI, gastroscopy and so on. As long as the examination finds abnormalities, it is necessary to consult the attending doctor at the first time to see if it is a manifestation of cancer recurrence.
Write at the end: Any treatment for cancer is not once and for all. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the most terrible thing about cancer is recurrence and metastasis.
Therefore, do not think that after receiving treatment, you can sit back and relax, patients still need to conduct regular review, the purpose is to avoid recurrence without knowing the situation.