It is common for patients with cardia cancer, like other tumor patients, to develop cachexia especially in the advanced stage, and more than 80% of end-stage patients have cachexia. After cachexia occurs in cardia cancer patients, their clinical manifestations are various.
The occurrence of cachexia in cardia cancer patients, like other tumor patients, especially in the advanced stage is common, and more than 80% of the end-stage patients have cachexia. Cachexia refers to the state of severe body consumption, weight loss, anorexia, weakness and general failure, which is a major clinical manifestation of many end-stage diseases. The mechanism of its occurrence is not yet fully understood and may be related to lack of appetite, reduced eating, bleeding, infection, fever or metabolic disorders caused by toxic products from tumor tissue necrosis.
The clinical manifestations of cardia cancer patients after the occurrence of cachexia are various. Among them, loss of appetite is often closely related to cachexia and appears together with it. Loss of appetite is one of the causes of cachexia and a clinical manifestation of cachexia. Loss of appetite is often the main complaint of many patients at the first visit. It is estimated that 25%-40% of tumor patients have loss of appetite at the time of consultation, and up to 80% or more in advanced stage patients, and almost 100% when they are near death. The occurrence of cachexia in the advanced stage of cardia cancer is a great threat to the life and health of patients. For those who have lost more weight, the death rate is obviously higher, the effect of radiotherapy is also very poor, and the patients themselves are already very weak, so it is not advisable to adopt more traumatic treatments, because patients with cachexia have lower immune function and are easy to be infected. Vicious circle.
Other common symptoms of cachexia include anorexia, nausea, weight loss, anemia, muscle atrophy, and eventually loss of all fat and muscle, leading to death. Anorexia is often an important symptom of cancer cachexia syndrome and was originally thought to be the main cause of wasting, but studies have found that anorexia is a result of cachexia rather than the cause.
Another common symptom of cachexia is malnutrition. Malnutrition is classified as protein malnutrition, protein-energy malnutrition, and mixed malnutrition. The first type is mainly seen in patients who have not had the disease for a long time, characterized by the lack of malnutrition features and only laboratory abnormalities, so it is easy to be ignored. The second type is mostly seen in patients with advanced tumors, and the symptoms, signs and adjuvant tests of malnutrition have been shown, so it is easy to make the diagnosis. The last type of patients have obvious cachexia, with serious loss of fat and protein in the body, impairment of important organ functions, and prone to complications such as infections. Malnutrition is sometimes closely related to the presence of cancer, and the nutritional status can often be restored to different degrees after the cancer is removed. When malnutrition symptoms occur in patients with advanced cardia cancer, there are also some special signs such as spatulate nail, antenail (iron deficiency), petechiae, petechiae (vitamin C and K deficiency), hyperpigmentation, skin keratinization (niacin and vitamin A deficiency) and so on. These are uncommon symptoms but may cause alarm to patients and clinicians.