By Dr. Mark Levandovsky
What are signs and symptoms cancer?
Signs are things that can be seen, heard or at least detected by others relatively easily. Such examples would include weight loss, fever or labored breathing. Symptoms, on the other hand, are much more felt than they are detectable, and are up to the patient to voice concern over. The question most people face when dealing with symptoms is differentiating between complaining about something that’s more or less normal and something that indicates illness. After all, a constant headache may just as easily be a sign of frustration with something external, instead of an internal illness.
When is a symptom or sign a possible indicator of cancer?
Unfortunately, signs and symptoms are only indicators that something is wrong, whether it’s cancer or something else depends on many other factors. These signs and symptoms only show that the body is deviating from normal behavior, because something has gone wrong.
One example is weight loss. In cancer, this happens because the body is having trouble processing energy. The weight loss we’re more concerned with is “unexplained weight loss”. Unexplained weight loss is termed this way intentionally, to mean your lifestyle hasn’t changed, but you’ve managed to lose a noticeable amount of weight, say ten or so pounds. Cancers that are associated with weight loss include pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, and lung cancer.
Fever is another common cancer symptom, but of course, a high temperature, in general, is a common symptom and can mean too many things. Conversely, almost all forms of cancer are plagued with fever as a side effect, but is especially prevalent in cancers that directly affect the immune system. Fever may also be an indicator of blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma.
Fatigue is a symptom often ignored and attributed to insufficient sleep, nutrition or coffee, but is also a symptom of some cancers, including colon cancer stomach cancer and leukemia. These cancers are associated with blood loss. Fatigue can be a major indicator of blood loss. Fatigue as a symptom relates to an extraordinary lack of energy, a beyond normal form of exhaustion, that doesn’t seem to be relieved by any amount of sleep or change in diet, this can be a sign of something altogether more serious.
A change in digestive habits, can point to cancers related to the digestive tract. Constipation or diarrhea can be a marker for colon cancer just as a need to urinate frequently, or less often than usual, can indicate bladder or prostate cancer.
Unfortunately, with all this said, symptoms are a bit far along when it comes to cancer. By the time symptoms manifest in the body there are usually about 1 billion cancer cells infesting the area affected by cancer. The most important factor in cancer treatment is early detection. The longer you wait the harder it becomes to treat. When you start experiencing symptoms, it means that the cancer cells have been accumulating for many years. For instance, melanoma, when detected early, has a survival rate past five years of 98%. By the time you reach stage 2 the survival rate drops to 80-50%. While stage 4 melanoma is frighteningly low, at 15-10%.
The key to cancer successful treatment is early detection.
So considering the importance of early detection, how often should you get screened for cancer?
It depends on your risk level, if you are a high-risk individual you should be examined every year. Unfortunately, routine yearly check-ups for cancer aren’t sanctioned as “standard of care” for insurance. Insurance policies are, sad to say, behind the times. Insurance companies have yet to update their guidelines to reflect the data gathered in recent years. Risk factors may be genetic, lifestyle or environmental depending on the person.
So are you high risk?
Here is an abbreviated list of questions to ask yourself in to see if you could be at risk:
- Do you smoke, or are you exposed to an irregular amount of second-hand smoke?
There is a plethora of data pointing to tobacco and tobacco smoke, as increasing your risk for cancer many different forms of cancer. It has been shown in several case studies that it increases your risk for lung cancer by up to 40%.
- Do you have a family history of cancer?
It’s estimated that as much as 10% of cancer diagnoses point to your genetics. If it’s in your family play it safe and consider yourself high risk.
3.Do you have diabetes?
Diabetes affects the body in such a way that it can put you at higher risk for a number of cancers. If you have diabetes think about keeping track of more than just your blood sugar, consider seriously regular screening for cancer.
- Have you had exposure to radiation, hormones or chemical pollutants?
There are certain kinds of carcinogens that have linked to cancer later in life. If you were ever exposed to chemicals, don’t shrug it off as something that happened a long time ago, there may be dormant cancer implications that you need to be tested for.
- Are you overweight?
One major factor for cancer risk is obesity. There is an estimated 20% of cancer diagnosis attributed to obesity. In addition to cancer, being overweight makes it more likely that you’ll suffer from heart disease, and diabetes thereby increasing your cancer risk further.
- Have you had exposure to radon?
Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and Europe. The chemical has been used in a vast number of occupations and environments, and should be recognized as a serious health risk. If you think you may have been exposed to radon you should consider yourself at high risk for cancer.
Summary
Early detection is paramount, in fact, it’s the biggest factor when it comes to cancer. Among most cancers’, survival, when detected early, is in the 90% range. Late detection results in much less optimistic projections, much of the time the survival rate will drop by a staggering 50 or even 70%.
The unfortunate reality is, that too often symptoms are a result of cancer which has already metastasized. Which means, that if you’re having cancer symptoms you may already have a later stage of cancer making screening all the more urgent of a concern.
Find out if you are at high risk for cancer. If you are get screened every year, if you do have cancer and catch it early your outcome could be significantly better.
Mark Levandovsky, MD
Bio
As the founder and medical director of Preventive Medicine and Cancer Care practice, Dr. Levandovsky provides personalized care to health conscious individuals – as well as active cancer patients and cancer survivors. He focuses on integrative care delivery, genetic and molecular risk assessments, preventive strategies, education, nutrition and psycho-oncology.
With board certifications in Internal medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Dr. Mark Levandovsky specializes in helping patients understand their overall health “portrait,” allowing people to make decisions that prevent illness and ultimately put them in charge of their health.