Uncle Han acquired the hepatitis B virus due to a blood transfusion accident when he was young, and since then Uncle Han has been taking medicine intermittently to control hepatitis B for more than 20 years.
In the past three months, Uncle Han has had a faint pain in his right upper abdomen, and Uncle Han preconceived that it might be hepatitis B again, but he went to the infectious disease hospital to buy his commonly used medicine, so he didn't pay much attention to it.
However, the pain lasted for three months, and there were always signs of aggravation, Uncle Han felt that hepatitis B might be a little serious, so he went to the hospital for examination and wanted to treat it systematically.
The results of the examination showed that Uncle Han was already in the advanced stage of liver cancer. Because the pain in the liver area of cancer may be similar to the pain of hepatitis B involving the liver capsule, this makes Uncle Han use the wrong heart.
Similar to Uncle Han, even if he has an underlying disease, if the body has persistent pain, and it has not been relieved after treatment, it is necessary to highly suspect abnormal mass or inflammatory reaction.
Why is cancer the most suspicious thing about prolonged pain?
Tumors are abnormal cell proliferations in the body, and pain is the most common manifestation of early warning of bodily functions. Various pathological changes such as mass occupation and erosion of tumor cells will not be easily eliminated. Therefore, long-term changes may cause long-term pain.
For one, the growth characteristics of the tumor trigger the production of pain.
At present, it is believed that tumor cells are mutant cells with apoptotic gene mutations, which also determines that if the nutrient supply is appropriate, tumor cells may grow indefinitely, but the limited development of normal physiological environment will also cause contradictions.
When the abnormal enlargement of tumor cells compresses normal tissues and organs, the pressure of the corresponding parts increases, which in turn causes pain, and similar to the growth of liver tumors, which causes tension in the liver capsule, it is also easy to cause tension-increasing pain.
Cancer cells often metastasize with blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, and when cancer cells block blood vessels or lymphatic vessels, causing reflux disorders and swelling, toxic substances accumulate and easily lead to ischemia and necrosis, which will cause severe pain.
Second, the pathological response of the tumor is also prone to cause pain.
The cancer tumor itself secretes pain-causing substances, and when cancer cells die and disintegrate, they release pain-causing substances such as prostaglandins, which can cause pain when they act on surrounding tissues and cells.
The tumor itself acts as a foreign body that invades the normal cells of the human body, triggering a response from the immune system, triggering a series of inflammatory responses, and also causing pain in the cancer-affected area.
Tumors can ulcerate even if they are not prone to apoptosis, just like breast cancer, which ulcerates on the surface of the breast, and the inflammatory response factors of the ulceration erode the surrounding tissues, causing painful symptoms.
In summary, the manifestation of long-term pain may be the most common symptom of tumors, but there is more than one disease that can show pain, so many people choose to endure pain or take medicine on their own.
Although pain is common, it should not be ignored after all, if there are the following four persistent pains, you must not ignore them, it may really be the cancer that is at fault.
These 4 types of pain in the body, cancer may spread
Pain in the abdomen
The abdomen contains 2/3 of the body's organs, so some minor illnesses and disasters can easily cause pain, which means that cancerous changes in various organs may cause abdominal pain.
The most common abdominal pain is stomach disease, the pain is not obvious in the early stage of gastric cancer, and the pain symptoms appear in the case of stimulation such as eating, gastric tumors may cause upper abdominal distension and pain, and as the disease progresses, the cancer tissue may break down and cause burning pain.
Compared with the changes in the upper abdomen caused by gastric cancer, liver cancer will only show symptoms of liver pain in the middle and late stages, mainly in the right upper abdomen, which is one of the reasons why liver cancer is not easy to find.
The digestive system, such as pancreatic cancer and bowel cancer, is also prone to abdominal pain, so it is important to be vigilant if there is persistent pain in the abdomen. If women have persistent pain in the lower abdomen, accompanied by irregular menstrual changes, they should be alert to uterine or ovarian tumor lesions.
Shoulder and neck pain
Shoulder and neck pain can easily be thought of as pain caused by frozen shoulder or cervical spondylosis, and there is a type of lung tip cancer, that is, superior sulcus cancer, which is easy to ignore because it is a rare lung cancer.
There are many nerves and nerve roots around the apex of the lung, and when the apex of the lung becomes cancerous, the growing cancer tissue may compress or even invade the peripheral nerves, causing shoulder pain. The pain is radial, radiating from the shoulder along the arm to the entire upper extremity.
Different from the pain caused by frozen shoulder, the pain caused by lung cancer is often not relieved, and it is more aggravated in the later stage, so if the frozen shoulder is not relieved after systemic treatment, it is necessary to pay close attention.
In addition, tumors in the lungs that develop may also involve pleural extensions, which may also cause pain around the shoulder. Shoulder pain caused by lung cancer is usually sudden, intense, and radioactive, which can help us distinguish between them.
Bone pain
Bone tumor is a type of tumor that causes bone pain, in which bone cancer cells infiltrate, invade, and irritate peripheral nerves and bone tissue, thus causing pain. Pain that occurs in the joints of the limbs is easy to be mistaken for arthritis.
One of the most common complications in the development of tumors is bone metastasis, such as advanced breast cancer, prostate cancer, etc., bone metastasis will occur, and the physical compression and stimulation of bone and periosteum by metastatic tumor cells and tumor infiltration and invasion of sensory nerves will cause pain.
The nature of bone pain caused by bone metastasis also varies greatly, from dull pain to tingling pain, but if the pain persists and cannot be relieved after certain treatment, it is necessary to be alert to the occurrence of tumors.
Perianal pain
With the rapid development of modern work and life, the law of "nine hemorrhoids in ten people" is more and more in line with the law of modern people's disease, most people have the hidden danger of hemorrhoids, so blood in the stool, pain during defecation, and even some people can be "accustomed to", which is often a disease that we tend to ignore - rectal cancer.
Rectal cancer is a common malignant tumor of the digestive tract, usually no pain in the early stage, if the volume of rectal cancer increases and extends downward, it may invade the rectal nerve around the anus, causing perianal pain. In addition to pain, blood in the stool and changes in bowel habits caused by rectal cancer can also be easily mistaken for common digestive tract diseases.
Therefore, if there is persistent poor bowel movement, tenesmus, pain, etc., it can no longer be used as hemorrhoids treatment, let alone avoid medical treatment, and it is necessary to seek professional treatment in the hospital in time.
Some diseases are not as life-threatening as cancer, but the impact of persistent pain on quality of life makes them called "immortal cancers".
The two "immortal cancers" have a low mortality rate, but they have a high sense of pain,
1. Ectomycosis
Adenomyosis is called "immortal cancer" because it is not a tumor and is not life-threatening, but the treatment of this disease is still a worldwide problem.
The interstitium and glands of the endometrium invade the myometrium to form localized or diffuse lesions, adenomyosis mostly occurs in multiparous women aged 30-50, mainly manifested as intractable dysmenorrhea, which is why adenomyosis is called "immortal cancer".
Dysmenorrhea caused by adenomyosis not only occurs secondarily and aggravated pain, but also lasts for a long time, starting from 1 week before menstruation to the end of menstruation, and some patients even have symptoms of lower abdominal pain during non-menstrual periods.
Many doctors say that the only way to completely cure adenomyosis is to cut off the uterus. Therefore, even though the presence of adenomyosis does not threaten the patient's life, the persistent and developing severe menstrual cramps continue to afflict the patient.
2. Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by symmetrical symmetry and persistent swelling and pain in multiple joints such as hands and feet.
Patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis have ankylosis or fibrous joints, obvious restrictions on joint movement, aggravated pain, and even numbness and stiffness, which may also affect multiple systems and organs of the body.
Rheumatoid arthritis is also known as the "cancer that does not die" because it is generally not life-threatening, but if left untreated, it is very likely to lead to disability, and there is currently no cure for it, and the progression of the disease can seriously affect the quality of life of patients.
Pain is one of the most common manifestations of the body's early warning disease, the pain of any disease should not be ignored, and even choose to endure, only by seeking professional diagnosis in time and intervening in time can we truly cut off the development of the disease and maintain human health.
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