Perhaps you have heard that a certain person had a successful career, but a medical checkup revealed that he might have esophageal cancer, and because he could not accept the reality, he went around for medical treatment, and as a result, he missed the best time for surgery and died of depression in less than three months. …… Wang Jianbin, Department of Oncology, Xiyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine
What to do if you have esophageal cancer? Most of the cancer patients are overwhelmed by the fearful diagnosis report and complicated anti-cancer treatment measures and drugs, and they are difficult to make a decision, and even throw themselves to doctors in a hurry. Many “past patients” look back on the difficult process of medical treatment with numerous sighs. When cancer comes, some people are calm, calm and dispatch their troops and eventually win; some are negative and pessimistic, hesitant and retreat, and eventually lose; some have a lot of money but cannot save their lives; some can rise again although they have a lot of water. …… Lack of knowledge, fear and anxiety can seriously interfere with the formulation and implementation of treatment plans. The lack of knowledge and fear and anxiety can seriously interfere with the formulation and implementation of the treatment plan. The following three personal experiences of esophageal cancer patients are typical of three wrong tendencies, which may be helpful for esophageal cancer patients who are about to take the first step to fight cancer successfully.
Case 1: Giving up treatment Old Wang was working in a construction site. Half a year ago, he always felt uncomfortable when he ate too fast, but he dared not go to the hospital for examination, then he swallowed things more and more slowly and could not eat dry and hard things. The doctor suggested him to be hospitalized, but he said he had long suspected that he had esophageal cancer, but he was afraid to come for examination, and he often had insomnia. He also said that cancer is a dead end and he was determined not to treat it. After returning to his hometown, he could not eat at all and was bedridden, and later it was too late to cure him. Expert comment: Esophageal cancer is indeed a highly malignant tumor, but it is not an incurable disease. The treatment result varies greatly depending on the early and late stages of the disease. Take surgery as an example, the 5-year survival rate of early stage cancer can reach about 90%, while the 5-year survival rate of middle and late stage cancer drops to 20%-30%. Therefore, early stage cancer should be operated as much as possible, and those who cannot be operated can be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Even in advanced stage, patients can still be relieved of pain through active palliative treatment, such as stent implantation if they have difficulty in eating, or with Chinese medicine treatment to improve or enhance the quality of life. In recent years, new molecular targeted therapies for esophageal cancer have been marketed, such as ERSA or Troche, which can increase the control rate to about 50%. In addition, patients who go to large oncology specialists can also choose to participate in clinical trials of some new drugs, so as to get the best treatment opportunity at present.
Case 2: Irregular treatment type Mr. Zhang is the president of a company. Once he had pain behind his sternum after drinking alcohol, he thought he had a heart attack and was sent to hospital by 120 for examination. After the surgery, the doctor suggested him to receive further radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but the patient and his family refused the comprehensive treatment such as post-operative chemotherapy and radiotherapy because they were worried about the adverse effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. After being discharged from the hospital, a friend introduced a prescription saying how miraculous it was and cured many people with conviction. He thought that the surgery had cut the tumor cleanly, so he only needed to change his bad habits and get well, and chemotherapy and radiotherapy were very harmful to his body. As a result, less than one year after the operation, he felt unwell and went to the hospital to find out that his esophageal cancer had recurred and metastasized in many places, so he was immediately hospitalized and although his symptoms were once relieved, he eventually died from the recurrence of cancer metastasis.
Expert comment: It was very wise for Mr. Zhang to receive surgery after he suffered from esophageal cancer. If he continued to follow the medical advice and received radiotherapy and chemotherapy, I believe he would have had a much better chance of being cured. In recent years, the biggest progress in cancer treatment is standardized and integrated treatment, and most cancer patients need integrated treatment. Standardized comprehensive treatment refers to the combined use of multiple effective cancer treatment methods to completely remove the primary tumor lesions, remove regional and distant micro-metastatic lesions, and prevent cancer recurrence. Standardized comprehensive cancer treatment requires the development of treatment methods that are suitable for individual patients according to their specific conditions. Comprehensive cancer treatment involves multiple disciplines such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which emphasize the cooperation among different disciplines and planned and phased treatment, so that patients and their families can understand the overall plan and general arrangement of comprehensive treatment at the early stage of treatment, and in this regard, oncology specialty hospitals have an advantage. In addition, the end of treatment does not mean that the cancer is completely gone, and regular review is very important.
Case 3: Over-treatment Ms. Li received adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery for esophageal cancer, and her children prepared sea cucumber, American ginseng, ganoderma lucidum and other tonic medicines, but because of nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, most of what she ate was vomited, but she finally got over it. After chemotherapy, he was always worried about the recurrence of tumor, had poor appetite, always had insomnia, tiredness and fatigue. She often asked for a comprehensive examination, including esophagoscopy, tumor markers, ultrasound, MRI and even PET-CT, but no signs of tumor recurrence and metastasis were found. In addition, she also asked her doctor to prescribe oral and injectable drugs to fight against metastasis and recurrence, and she even gave the doctor a rush if he did not prescribe them. In addition, she has been seeking many kinds of non-formal treatment, whether on the radio or in the newspaper, whenever there is an advertisement for anti-esophageal cancer, she has to try it herself. In addition to taking tonic products, there are also a certain anti-cancer prescription capsule, Fu Zheng Detoxification Punch, XX oral liquid, XX tea, spore powder ……
Expert comment: Although Ms. Li received formal treatment, she kept seeking informal treatment for fear of recurrence of cancer disease. Many cancer patients have similar experiences, and even after the treatment is over, they still use various kinds of partial prescriptions and mono prescriptions for a long time. It is believed that as long as the drugs and foods that may have cancer prevention and anti-cancer, detoxification and immune function enhancement, more is better. Some patients even value drugs and tonic products with inaccurate efficacy more than meals, and even scrimp and save in order to buy these drugs. In fact, any unplanned over-treatment is not beneficial, but may seriously affect the regular cancer treatment. Abuse of drugs and tonic may also interfere with the normal digestive and absorption functions, aggravate the burden on liver and kidneys, increase the financial burden of patients, cause malnutrition, metabolic disorders and psychosomatic disorders, and a series of other problems. Chinese medicine has definite efficacy in modern tumor treatment, mainly in reducing the adverse effects of western medical treatment, which can help patients recover as soon as possible, improve their symptoms and enhance their quality of life. However, the efficacy of TCM should not be over-exaggerated. For esophageal cancer, simple TCM treatment cannot replace Western medicine comprehensive treatment yet. Therefore, patients must go to regular hospitals for treatment. Those who exaggerate under the banner of TCM are not real TCM practitioners.
To win the battle against esophageal cancer, it is necessary to be fully prepared.
As the main body of this war, the patient decides that he is the “combatant” and can also be the “commander”, in addition, the scout is needed to get information, the orderly is needed to do logistic support, and the propagandist is needed to boost morale. So clear, but the critical moment, someone must be able to make decisions, such as the choice of treatment and drugs to be determined. In reality, the whole family is often mobilized when one person has cancer, and even relatives and friends are involved, and some of them try to keep the patient from knowing the disease. If the patient is over 80 years old, about 90 percent of people may support this practice, but if the patient is a middle-aged person, it may be better to choose an appropriate opportunity to inform appropriately, because the next treatment will require the patient’s cooperation, and there are few patients who do not know their condition during the consultation, unless they do not want to know, otherwise, when the critical moment of cooperation is needed, they may have The patient is rarely unaware of his or her condition unless he or she does not want to know.
When you or your family members are diagnosed with esophageal cancer, don’t panic and don’t give up treatment easily, but actively seek formal treatment. Comprehensive assessment of the disease is the prerequisite for correct decision of treatment plan. A comprehensive assessment of the disease requires information on the pathological type of tumor, degree of differentiation, cancer site, scope and size, presence of distant metastasis and clinical stage, as well as the functional status of important organs such as heart, liver and kidney. If you need to choose different hospitals and doctors in the treatment process, it is better to bring all these medical records, including pathological diagnosis and treatment history, so that doctors can fully consider the actual situation of individual patients.
More and more successful experiences in fighting against cancer tell us that: to overcome cancer is the first and foremost prerequisite to invigorate the spirit; comprehensive treatment is the scientific way to overcome cancer; once you are on the front line of fighting against cancer, you should change from passive treatment to active participation in treatment, and change from single Western medical treatment to comprehensive treatment of Western medicine, Chinese medicine, physical and mental exercise, diet and so on; as brave warriors, you should hold high the torch of life and gather into a team to fight against the disease. As brave warriors, they should hold up the torch of life and gather into an army to fight against the disease and take the first step to successfully fight against cancer.