When there is "new flesh" on the body, face, hands, and nails, many people can't help but use their hands to cut it, or frequently wash and rub it. Attention, this is bad behavior!
The following picture is published by a doctor in the circle of friends, in which the nail cap of the patient's left ring finger is turned over, and the doctor cut a 0.8 cm * 0.5 cm large lump from the nail bed, and was finally diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma that has been moderately differentiated.
Image source: Zhejiang University First Hospital
How can cancer grow in the nails? This has to start with a wound on the patient's finger.
The nail was stabbed by a fish thorn and the wound was not healed for 5 years
Five years ago, When Mr. Lin, 63, in Hangzhou, was doing sauerkraut fish to remove fish bones, the fingernail of his left hand was accidentally poked by a fish thorn.
"The fish bones were a little thick, so I pulled out and wiped the blood with a tissue and temporarily pasted it with a Band-Aid." Mr. Lin recalled that the person who cooked the dish would inevitably have some wounds on his hands, and when the blood stopped, he did not deal with it again.
For several days, the wound on his finger was always faintly painful when he touched the water, and it began to be red and swollen, and it was useless for him to apply iodine, so Mr. Lin went to a nearby hospital for treatment. The doctor diagnosed paronychia and developed a purulent infection and prescribed him medication for treatment.
Over the next four years, Mr. Lin's finger injuries were repeated, but each time he was temporarily relieved by medication.
Unexpectedly, a year ago, the wound was infected again, and the situation was more serious than before, "Before, the wound was painful, and now the whole nail cover is very painful." Mr. Lin said that not only has the scope of the pain expanded, but there are often pus leaking from the slits of his nails this year.
Recently, he noticed that the fingernail caps of his injured fingers seemed to be "cocked" and rushed to the hospital.
"Knowing that his condition was repeatedly infected over a 5-year period, I was highly suspicious of malignancy." The doctor said that during the outpatient clinic, he found that Mr. Lin had an obvious lesion of infection at the end of the ring finger of his left hand.
In order to further confirm the diagnosis, at the end of August, Mr. Lin went to the hospital for magnetic resonance examination and found that he had a lump on the dorsal side of his phalangeal bone, and the pathological results showed that it was a moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.
"Squamous cell carcinoma is a malignant tumor of the skin, but squamous cell carcinoma that grows in the position of the nail bed is not only rare, but also relatively hidden, and it is easy to misdiagnose and miss diagnosis." The doctor explained that fortunately, Mr. Lin's malignant tumor had not yet metastasized far away, but his left ring finger could not be saved, and the amputated finger needed to be enlarged.
The wound has not been healed, the risk is large, pay attention!
A wound stabbed by a fish thorn, which could not be healed for 5 years, eventually evolved into a malignant tumor! It sounds scary, but the doctor says, that's the reality, and the disease may be inadvertently creeping up on you! The outermost layer of skin on the surface of human skin or organs looks like scales under a microscope, so it is called squamous cells.
Squamous cell carcinoma can occur in the skin, lungs, esophagus, oral mucosa and other areas that cover the scaly skin, and squamous cell carcinoma occurs most commonly in the skin.
At the beginning of 2020, the famous host Zhao Zhongxiang unfortunately died because of this cancer.
After Zhao Zhongxiang's death, his son Zhao Fang posted a tribute on Weibo saying that his father was unwell at the end of 2019 and found that he had cancer and had spread. Some media learned from people familiar with the matter that Zhao Zhongxiang was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in the hospital due to leg discomfort in December last year.
There are many causes of squamous cell carcinoma, ultraviolet rays, radiation exposure, chemical carcinogens, viral infections, chronic skin diseases, etc. are all carcinogenic factors.
"Chronic wounds on the surface of the skin do not heal for a long time, and they may become cancerous under the action of various irritating factors." General wounds 5-10 years is not good, the risk of cancer is very large, of course, but also to integrate the wound situation and whether there are factors such as irritation, orthopedics has also received a patient with a wound of only half a year on the cancer.
Why is there a risk of cancerous development if chronic wounds do not heal for a long time?
In the process of repeated "injury-healing" of the wound, the new cell has the possibility of genetic mutation when it reproduces and replaces the old cell, and as long as there is a cell "degeneration", the cancer will find the upper body.
Early squamous cell carcinoma surgery cure rates are ideal, but if distal metastases occur, the chances of survival are slim. If the skin is always broken, especially some people with chronic skin diseases, if the wound is always not healed, it is necessary to seek medical treatment in time.
In particular, the elderly who have erythema on the skin and have keratosis (thick and hard skin) and those who have been exposed to sunlight for a long time can receive early screening with dermoscopy.
These five common types of squamous cell carcinoma, you must understand!
Clinically, squamous cell carcinoma can occur in many parts, such as the skin, tongue, mouth, esophagus, lungs, cervix, vagina, penis and prostate, and can also be seen in the bronchi, bladder and renal pelvis. "Squamous cell carcinoma" is actually a histopathological classification of cancer.
Here are a few common squamous cell carcinomas that you must understand:
1. Skin squamous cell carcinoma:
Manifestations: In the early stages of the skin, the skin is red induration, which can develop into warty lesions or infiltrative manifestations.
Causes: long-term exposure to sunlight, chronic irritation are the main causes of the disease, while radiation exposure can also induce squamous cell carcinoma of the skin.
Screening: Most of them can be diagnosed by examination of skin histopathology, if the skin appears nodules, plaques or ulcers, be sure to go to the hospital in time.
2. Lung squamous cell carcinoma
Manifestations: irritating dry cough, coughing up blood, fever, chest tightness, chest pain and other symptoms.
Triggers: Related to factors such as smoking, air pollution, and poor living habits.
Screening: In addition to routine physical examinations, low-dose spiral CT thin-layer scans are extremely effective for lung cancer screening and are more likely to detect tiny lesions than chest x-rays.
3. Nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
Manifestations: tinnitus, runny nose, bleeding, etc.
Triggers: Mostly due to Epstein-Barr virus infection.
Screening: Nasopharyngeal microscopy is an effective means of early detection of nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
4. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Manifestations: dysphagia, may be accompanied by vomiting, etc.
Triggers: Often associated with eating hot or spicy foods, smoking and other factors.
Screening: esophageal microscopy can help with early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
5. Cervical squamous cell carcinoma
Manifestations: vaginal bleeding, abnormal vaginal discharge.
Triggers: Mainly caused by HPV virus infection.
Screening: Screening for vaginal discharge and vaginal discharge is recommended for women who are married or have a history of sexual life to have regular cervical exfoliation cytology.
In summary, the key to the prevention and treatment of squamous cell carcinoma is to remember 3 points:
The first is to screen early and detect early treatment
The second is to develop a good lifestyle
The third is timely vaccination of HPV vaccine