When it comes to "cancer", many people avoid it. However, in the severe situation of cancer in China, everyone may be recruited, especially digestive tract tumors.

In my country, the incidence of esophageal cancer, gastric cancer and liver cancer ranks first in the world, and colorectal cancer ranks second in the world.

Why is the incidence of gastrointestinal tumors so high?

A 20-year-long study published by Harvard University in Gastroenterology shows that gastric cancer in Chinese is most closely related to high sodium intake, colorectal cancer is high red meat intake, and esophageal cancer is associated with smoking. The most important factor for liver cancer is obesity.

Overall, 56.5% of colorectal cancers, 59.8% of stomach cancers, 48.5% of esophageal cancers, and 35.2% of liver cancers were associated with poor lifestyles such as smoking, high red meat intake, and obesity. Previous studies have shown that long-term consumption of pickled foods such as salted fish and pickled vegetables can also lead to an increased incidence of esophageal cancer and gastric cancer.

It can be seen that cancer enters from the mouth, and the answer is hidden in the word "eat".

Therefore, we must pay attention to bad habits in our daily diet and lifestyle. In addition, patients with gastrointestinal tumors need to be detected and treated early to improve the 5-year survival rate as much as possible.

So, what are the common symptoms of digestive tract tumors?

In this issue, we invite Jia Lin, a postdoctoral fellow in tumor immunology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and deputy chief physician of the Department of Medical Oncology, Guangzhou Taihe Cancer Hospital, to explain to us the relevant knowledge about gastrointestinal tumors. You can click the video to watch it directly.

Beware of local symptoms of 4 kinds of digestive tract tumors

Gastrointestinal tumors generally "react" from local symptoms, then expand, and finally metastasize. Therefore, the detection of local symptoms should be particularly sensitive, and the opportunity for early treatment should not be missed.

1. Esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer patients generally have difficulty eating, and it is difficult to swallow when eating solid foods such as steamed bread and pancakes. If the symptoms develop further, it may be difficult to swallow even the soft noodles. Dr. Jia Lin emphasized: Many people often ignore these two key details, and go to the hospital until they can't even drink water. At this time, the situation is very serious.

If the disease develops to local expansion, it may lead to invasion of nerves, such as drinking water, choking, hoarseness, etc.; if the trachea is compressed, there will be dry cough, cough, and expectoration.

When it develops to the third level, the cancer cells will metastasize, which may be in the lungs, causing shortness of breath and suffocation; it may also metastasize to the liver, causing discomfort in the liver area and abdominal pain. If metastasized to bone, there may be persistent tender point pain. At this point, you may not even be able to perform surgery.

2. Gastric cancer

The local symptoms of early gastric cancer are similar to those of gastritis, gastric ulcer and other gastric diseases, such as stomach discomfort, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, etc., so it is easy to be ignored.

Dr. Jalene says it's important to be vigilant when you have recurring pain, pain, or other symptoms that aren't the same as before. If the surrounding tissue is violated, it can also cause pain in the fixed part, such as pain in the liver area.

Like esophageal cancer, if gastric cancer progresses to the third level and distant metastasis occurs, it will also cause lung symptoms and bone symptoms.

3. Bowel cancer

Bowel cancer is relatively broad, including the colon, rectum, and small intestine. The small intestine is more easily overlooked and very difficult to diagnose.

Its symptoms include loose stools, constipation, or alternating constipation and diarrhea, but these symptoms occur occasionally in ordinary people. Therefore, people with colorectal cancer often don't think to check until they have repeated blood in the stool and black stools, but it may be too late by then.

Therefore, even if you have symptoms of constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, you should pay attention to it. It is recommended to go to the hospital for a detailed examination as soon as possible.

4. Liver cancer

The early symptoms of liver cancer are not easy to detect, and many people are in the middle and late stages when they are discovered. Some symptoms of liver cancer still need attention: such as intermittent or persistent pain in the liver area, accompanied by discomfort in the upper right abdomen; obvious loss of appetite, indigestion and abdominal distension after meals; abnormal coagulation function, epistaxis and subcutaneous bleeding. .

Dr. Jia Lin said that, especially for people with hepatitis B or potentially occult hepatitis, it is possible to gradually change from chronic hepatitis to liver cirrhosis to liver cancer after ten or twenty years. Therefore, patients with hepatitis B and cirrhosis must actively cooperate with treatment to prevent the occurrence of liver cancer.

What are the screening methods for gastrointestinal tumors?

If you suspect that you may suffer from gastrointestinal tumors, or have potential risks and want to check further, what should you do?

If it is the esophagus, stomach, intestine and other jejunal organs, the gold standard for screening is endoscopy, such as gastroscope and colonoscopy. Generally, some precancerous lesions can be screened by this method, and microscopic resection and radical cure can be performed in advance, which is very helpful for the long-term prevention of cancer.

For the screening of solid organs such as liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, B-ultrasound, CT and MRI may be used. Taking the liver as an example, the most gold standard method is MRI screening. At the same time, changes in tumor markers, such as alpha-fetoprotein, and ALP index, one of the blood test markers for liver cancer, should also be combined.

For gallbladder disease or intrahepatic bile duct disease, it is also necessary to rely on B-ultrasound, CT and MRI, combined with the expression level of the tumor marker CA199 to comprehensively judge and diagnose. The same is true for the examination of the pancreas, but unlike the liver, it is best to take a pathological biopsy for the gold standard diagnosis.

In addition to screening methods, family and genetic history should also be considered.

At present, for family history, there may be first-generation relatives, second-generation relatives and third-generation relatives, and different relative levels have different effects on the incidence of cancer in the next generation. Therefore, you should not only care about yourself, but also care about the people around you, and care about the entire family.

In addition, there is a genetic history. Colon cancer and gastric cancer will have a genetic history, especially colon cancer and colorectal cancer. The genetic incidence rate is very high.

Therefore, high-risk groups with family history and genetic history should be screened regularly.