Due to the lack of early symptoms of sarcoma, many adolescent patients are often misdiagnosed with sports injuries. As a dangerous, highly prevalent and easily neglected malignancy, sarcoma has jumped to the top three of childhood tumors in terms of incidence. Treating joint lumps as sports strains, night pains as growing pains, and self-application of herbal creams to invigorate blood flow …… various misconceptions lead to more than half of the patients being diagnosed at mid to late stages. The first diagnosis and treatment is directly related to whether the patient can retain the function of the limb, and the best time for treatment is the first surgery.
The incidence of sarcoma jumped to the top three childhood tumors
Sarcoma is a very dangerous malignant tumor that can occur anywhere in the body, commonly in the deep parts of the limbs, such as subcutaneous, periosteal and both ends of the long bones. Osteosarcoma is more common in young people, preferably in the extremities, with rapid development and short course; also common are smooth muscle tumor, lymphosarcoma, and synovial sarcoma. All sarcomas may develop hematogenous metastasis at an early stage.
What is more frightening is that the incidence of sarcoma accounts for 15%-20% of childhood tumors, and osteosarcoma among sarcomas is mainly in children and adolescents. Sarcoma has been ranked as the second or third most common childhood tumor worldwide. Osteosarcoma, a very common type of sarcoma, for example, occurs mostly in children aged 10 to 20 years old, and research suggests that it may be related to the rapid growth of human bones at this stage, which can easily cause cell mutations. In addition to increased medical awareness, the incidence of sarcoma is clinically evident, but many causative factors remain unclear.
Sarcomas are also dangerous because early clinical symptoms are often overlooked, resulting in more than half of patients not being seen for the first time until mid to late stages. Because early symptoms are not obvious, sarcoma is often misdiagnosed as an injury or arthritis, especially in children and adolescents, and is often attributed to a recent sports injury or even natural pain during the growing years, and is only treated when the mass develops rapidly and the pain is severe, by which time it is already in the middle to late stages.
According to clinical statistics, 40% to 50% of patients are diagnosed with large tumors, which are difficult to remove surgically or have metastasized, and face the double threat of forced amputation or life-threatening distant metastasis due to local recurrence after surgery.
In the early stage of the disease, patients will have irregular pain and discomfort in the limbs, but careful observation will reveal that there is no time relationship with movement, and the pain is intermittent at first, but gradually turns into continuous severe pain, and the pain is obvious at night. In fact, most of the malignant tumors typically represented by sarcoma have a distinctive feature of ‘nocturnal pain’, and osteosarcoma is especially prominent. In the early stage, 80% of patients can feel the lump, 50% of patients will have “night pain”, while in the late stage, basically all patients will have “night pain”.
In addition, the early self-diagnosis of synovial sarcoma, which is malignant in nature, is also specifically reminded: “It is a small, slow-growing mass in the ankle, with a very fixed location but unclear boundaries, and a painful pressure when pressed. ” The above characteristic signs of this sarcoma should be a signal to alert the patient to the disease.
Myth: Topical ointment can accelerate sarcoma growth
A Yunfu child with a knee lump was diagnosed as a soft tissue contusion by a local hospital, and was prescribed a lot of ointment to paste at home, resulting in rapid growth of the lump, which was found to be an osteosarcoma only when he went to Guangzhou for medical treatment, and at this time he had lost the chance to save his limbs because the tumor was too huge, and even worse luck was still to come – the examination then revealed that he had developed lung metastases, and even lost the chance to save his life. He lost his chance to save his life as well.
During the consultation, it was found that due to the early onset of long lumps and pain, many patients mistook it for sprains and bruises, resulting in 60% of patients in eastern, western and northern Guangdong having had their own herbal ointment treatment; while in areas such as the Pearl River Delta, the proportion is slightly lower, but also quite a few. “We have seen many patients who have been externally applying herbal medicine for a longer period of time, and the tumor grows significantly beyond the normal level, and individual even lung metastasis occurs soon.” Chinese herbs can produce physical effects that feed tumor growth and promote its rapid metastasis by activating blood circulation and other effects.
”Sarcoma is highly malignant and grows very fast itself, taking only two months to transition from early to middle stage, and then six months to possibly enter advanced stage and develop into lung metastasis.” Chinese herbs should never be misused to promote tumor development, and if the body develops lumps and irregular vague pains be sure to visit a hospital specialist to confirm the diagnosis to rule out the possibility of sarcoma.
Clinically, if adolescents have pain or lumps near the knee joint, the diagnosis can be mostly confirmed based on physical signs and X-ray and CT performance, and puncture biopsy can be performed if necessary. The earlier the sarcoma is detected the higher the cure rate is, and standardized and comprehensive treatment is the key to sarcoma cure. “The first diagnosis and treatment is directly related to whether the patient can retain the function of the limb, and the best time for treatment is the first surgery.”
Currently for sarcoma treatment clinical use of surgery-based, combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy integrated individualized treatment plan, neoadjuvant chemotherapy can kill tumor cells in the body through drugs, so that the success rate of limb-preserving reconstruction surgery greatly increased. “The current safe limb preservation rate for sarcoma reaches more than 90%, and the 5-year survival rate is about 70%.”
Tip: Sarcoma patients should avoid fried and fatty foods
The diet of sarcoma patients undergoing treatment and care should also be adjusted appropriately according to their condition, with a focus on light and easily absorbed foods.
Desirable foods.
1, patients can eat more food with anti-bone marrow disease, osteosarcoma, such as lingzhi, mushrooms, kelp, nori, light vegetables, sea clams, wakame, almonds, peach kernel.
2.Bone pain should eat more turtle plate, turtle meat, Impatiens, oyster, crab, shrimp, walnut.
3.It is advisable to eat snapper, loach, sea eel, ark, kelp and wakame at the same time with spleen enlargement.
4, sarcoma patients such as anemia should eat pig liver, mushrooms, sesame, bee milk, yellow fish, peanuts, sea cucumber, grass carp, abalone.
Avoid eating food.
1, avoid smoking, alcohol and spicy stimulating food.
2, avoid moldy, pickled, fried, fatty food.
3, avoid mutton, goose, pig head meat and other hairy things.