Oncology Popularization Series

1. Tumor is not incurable. Nowadays, people often talk about cancer and think that tumors are incurable and even “scared” to death, which is reasonable because in the past, medical technology was backward, most of the tumors were found in the late stage, and the economic conditions and limited treatment means led to half a year’s time from the time of discovery to the final death. However, there is actually a long period of time from the onset, development and clinical symptoms of cancer to the final end stage. For example, from acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, heterogeneous changes in the gastric mucosa, early gastric cancer, progressive gastric cancer, and terminal stage, there are actually several years or even 10 years between. In the past, people went to the hospital only when clinical symptoms arose or even when they were forced to do so, and by this time, most of them were found to be in the progressive or terminal stage. Together with the lack of treatment means and limited economic conditions, they soon passed away. Therefore, people think that tumor is a terminal disease, mostly because they only observe this last stage, and they think that the tumor progresses quickly, and when they get it, they basically declare that their life will end, which is actually not true. This is just one example, and there are also liver cancers, which evolve from hepatitis, cirrhosis, early liver cancer, and end-stage liver cancer, and most of them have several years, ten years, or even decades to evolve. And in this evolution process, with medical advances, there are various means to intervene. In early stage tumors, after surgical resection, the 5-year survival rate is very high and even curable; in progressive tumors, standardized treatment can also prolong the survival time of patients; even in the field of advanced tumors, there are now some treatments to improve the quality of life of patients and prolong the survival time of patients. Even in the field of advanced tumors, there are now some treatment methods to improve patients’ life quality and prolong their survival time. Therefore, it is not right to think that tumors are incurable, and it is even more inadvisable to give up and not to treat the tumors directly when they are found. 2. The key to tumor treatment lies in early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment. From the above introduction, we know that tumor is a partially curable disease, and the early tumor treatment effect is good and even can be cured. Therefore, the key to tumor treatment lies in early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment. How to find early tumors? It is very important to have regular medical checkup, and it is not an ordinary medical checkup. Nowadays, many units have medical checkups, most of them are just ordinary medical checkups, some of them are just going through the motions, what’s more, the means of medical checkups are backward, and there are risks of promoting cancer (for example, chest X-ray in medical checkups), so it’s better to be targeted and screened under the guidance of oncologists. For example, you have chronic atrophic gastritis, then it is best to do a gastroscopy every year to see. For example, if you have been smoking heavily for a long time, then it is best to be hospitalized every year to check the lung CT and tumor markers. There are many such examples, not to be recounted. Here involves a high-risk group of tumor, what is a high-risk group of tumor? It means that you have a higher risk of cancer than ordinary people. (1) Those with specific family history: for example, your family members have tumor patients, especially the kind with family aggregation phenomenon, such as colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, etc.. (2) Chronic disease history, such as chronic atrophic gastritis, hepatitis, various polyps, and even diabetic patients have higher incidence of pancreatic cancer than ordinary people. (3) Engaged in specific occupations, such as exposure to radioactivity, paints, chemical agents, etc. (4) Unhealthy lifestyle, for example, the incidence rate of lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, etc. is higher than that of non-smokers in people who have smoked a lot for a long time. Now it is even mentioned that the incidence rate of lung cancer in women will be higher if they are exposed to oil smoke for a long time. There is also the westernized lifestyle and colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, gallbladder ah related. And so on. (5) Ordinary people, however, due to force majeure, such as with age, the incidence of various tumors will increase, generally recommended for 40 years of age or older should be a yearly physical examination, preferably cancer prevention physical examination. There are also such as living in the haze area and so on.