Once received a lung cancer patient in the outpatient clinic, this 55-year-old male patient said that he found that there was no discomfort before lung cancer, no pain or cough, that is, repeated hiccups for a week, thinking of a lot of ways are not good, so ready to do acupuncture, the local Chinese medicine doctor recommended to do a chest CT and abdominal B ultrasound to see, this is found out. He wondered, is there any relationship between hiccups and lung cancer?
Indeed, I heard this sentence circulating among the common people before, always burping to be careful of serious illnesses, is there any scientific basis for this sentence?
People burp because the diaphragm between the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity is stimulated and transmitted to the brain, and the brain receives a signal and issues instructions to cause the diaphragm to appear paroxysmal and spastic contractions, and then the qi is reversed from the stomach. Healthy people burp, mostly related to diet, such as eating too much, stimulated by cold air, drinking too many drinks, etc., this hiccup is often transient. Frequent and repeated hiccups, more than 48 hours have not stopped, medically known as intractable hiccups. Stubborn hiccups are mostly caused by certain diseases, so be vigilant.
The diaphragm is located between the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity, and when lesions occur in this nearby organ, it is possible to stimulate the diaphragm and the diaphragm nerve and cause hiccups. Liver and stomach lesions are more common. If the malignant tumor of the liver is close to the top of the diaphragm, there will be a phenomenon of intractable hiccups, which is still clinically quite a lot. It is seen not only in primary liver cancer, but also in liver metastases that occur in other malignant tumors. The same is true for cardia, stomach, and esophageal cancers, and long-term, repetitive, and frequent hiccups without cause are common early symptoms of upper gastrointestinal cancer.
Why does lung cancer cause hiccups?
This has a lot to do with the anatomical location, where the lungs are located above the diaphragm. Lung cancer can cause hiccups for three reasons: 1. The lesion is low, close to the diaphragm, or invades the diaphragm, causing intractable hiccups; 2. Lung cancer mediastinal lymph node metastasis, lymphadenopathy compresses the diaphragm nerve, and diaphragm nerve compression is the direct cause of hiccups; 3. Lung cancer brain metastases, brain metastases stimulate hiccups the central or vagus nerve, causing intractable hiccups.
In fact, intractable hiccups in lung cancer patients after chemotherapy is also relatively common, and there will be hiccups due to digestive tract dysfunction caused by chemotherapy drugs. It has been reported in the literature that the incidence of intractable hiccups in patients with malignant tumors during or after chemoradiation is over course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is 3.9% to 4.5%.
Due to the stimulation of the vagus nerve or the central nervous system above the 3 to 5 segments of the cervical cord, it can also cause repeated spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm and respiratory muscles, and refractory hiccups occur. Therefore, central nervous system diseases may also cause repeated hiccups, more common is cerebrovascular disease, others include cervical spine and head injuries, brain tumors, encephalitis, meningitis, alcoholism, Parkinson's disease and so on. Frequent hiccups indicate signs of deterioration.