2024-01-16 08:41:00
Cancer is a disease whose survival rate can increase rapidly if detected early. Therefore, it is important to get checked regularly even if there are no clear symptoms. However, some cancers show specific signs, so it is good to be aware of them. Here are some surprising signs that appear when cancer occurs.
◇Cold sweat while sleeping
There are various diseases that cause cold sweat while sleeping. Representative examples are sleep apnea, anxiety disorder, and thyroid disease. However, there are reports that 30% of blood cancer patients also break out in a cold sweat while sleeping. Some patients with blood cancer sweat so profusely at night that their pillow gets wet. Blood cancer cells release inflammatory substances for no reason, and cold sweat occurs as our body’s immune substances fight against these inflammatory substances. When blood cancer occurs, the whole body itches. When blood cancer occurs, cancer cells infiltrate throughout the body, and at this time, they can penetrate under the skin and cause inflammation. Therefore, if you have these symptoms, ▲losing more than 3 kg in a month without dieting, and ▲if you feel lumps in your neck, armpits, or groin, it is best to suspect blood cancer and visit a hospital. When blood cancer occurs, it is treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (bone marrow transplantation), depending on the type.
◇Leg swelling
Cancer is one of the major diseases that cause leg swelling in the elderly. There was a study conducted by a domestic university hospital that investigated the diseases of 226 elderly Koreans who complained of leg swelling, and found that cancer was the most common at 51.3% (116 people). The research team said, “When cancer occurs, nutritional status deteriorates and the production of albumin (a protein that absorbs and excretes water from blood vessels) decreases, so edema is likely to appear.” He also explained, “Cancer patients are more likely to suffer from multiple diseases in various body parts, such as the kidneys or heart, so edema is more likely to occur.”
◇Reduction of pupil size in one eye
If the pupil size of one eye is reduced, lung cancer should be suspected at least once. When a ‘Pancoast’ tumor, which is cancer that forms at the top of the lung, develops, it can damage spinal nerves, which can lead to damage to the sympathetic nerves in the face. At this time, ‘Horner’s syndrome’ may appear. The three main symptoms of Horner syndrome are ▲ drooping of the upper eyelid of one eye ▲ the pupil of one eye becomes smaller than the other ▲ no sweating on only one side of the face. The most common cause of Horner syndrome is tumor (35-60%), and symptoms disappear when the causative disease is removed. The UK’s ‘Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce’ recommends, “The longer the diagnosis of Horner’s syndrome is delayed, the worse the prognosis for cancer is, so if suspicious symptoms appear, go to the hospital quickly and get tested.”
◇The tips of your fingers become blunt or your hands turn dark.
It is also a good idea to suspect lung cancer and get tested if the tips of your fingers swell and appear dull, your face and eyes are particularly swollen when you wake up in the morning, or if the swelling persists abnormally. The reason clubbing occurs in lung cancer is because the body becomes short of oxygen and capillaries expand to deliver oxygen. Then, capillaries and distal soft tissues overproliferate, causing the clubbing phenomenon. Additionally, if lung cancer spreads and the function of the vena cava, which carries blood from the head and arms to the heart, decreases, the upper chest and arms, including the face and neck, may swell.
The color of your hands may also turn dark. This is because when cancer occurs, acanthosis nigricans, which causes abnormalities in the skin, may occur. Acanthosis nigricans is a disease characterized by gray or brown pigmentation on the skin, thickening of the skin, and wrinkles. According to a case report from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (2018), more than 90% of patients with acanthosis nigricans are related to cancer, and among cancers, lung cancer and stomach cancer are the most common. In particular, when acanthosis nigricans occurred due to cancer, symptoms tended to spread not only to the palms but also to mucous membranes and the entire body.
It is not clear why cancer causes acanthosis nigricans. However, it is believed that this is because cancer cells overproduce certain growth factors that cause skin cell growth.
◇Jaundice and itching
Signs of cancer may appear as jaundice and itching. Among them, the phenomenon of ‘jaundice’ caused by cancer is called ‘Stauffer syndrome’, and although it is not common, it affects 5% of kidney cancer patients. The mechanism of Stauffer syndrome is not clearly known. However, it is presumed that it occurs when a substance called ‘Interleukin 6’ produced by cancer acts on the liver to suppress the action of a gene that regulates bile secretion in the body. If bile is not excreted from the liver properly and remains in the body, bilirubin, a pigment in the bile, remains in the body and turns the eyes and body yellow. It is believed that the reason why itching occurs is because certain substances, such as bile acids and lipids, accumulate in the body due to problems in the liver or bile discharge area. Jaundice and itching caused by Stauffer syndrome disappear when the root cause, cancer, is removed or treatment is given to lower the elevated levels of interleukin 6 in the body. Therefore, if you experience itchiness along with jaundice, you should first suspect liver disease and, if there are no abnormalities, get tested for cancer. However, itching must occur systemically and not in localized areas. Itchiness that appears in localized areas is more likely to be a skin disease.
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