Silent but preventable
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Cam PhuongDirector of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (Bach Mai Hospital), said that in the process of treating cancer patients, there were many cases of patients suffering from liver cancer when they were too young. The late stage cannot be treated.
Such is the case, a 20-year-old student studying at a University in Hanoi. 2 weeks before admission, the patient often had pain in the right lower quadrant. However, the patient did not go to the doctor and still endured the pain.
When the patient’s pain is too unbearable, he comes to the hospital for examination. Examination results showed that the patient had an infiltrating liver cancer that spread to the entire liver, accompanied by hepatitis B, elevated liver enzymes, and very high tumor scores.
Because the patient came to the hospital at a late stage, it was not possible to intervene in the treatment of liver cancer but only treat pain relief symptoms. After that, the patient’s cancer progressed rapidly, about 2 weeks later, jaundice, biliary obstruction and a few weeks later, the patient died.
Doctor Phuong said that liver cancer is rare in young people. For young people, liver cancer is often on the background of cirrhosis due to undetected chronic hepatitis.
Experts note that for liver cancer, symptoms develop silently but can be detected abnormally by ultrasound, a non-invasive test performed at district health care. If abnormalities are found, seek medical attention. For people at high risk, it is advisable to follow the schedule of visits by a specialist to control chronic hepatitis.
Liver cancer, illustration.
“If someone in the family is accidentally found to have hepatitis B, all other members should also go to the doctor. Good control of hepatitis will help limit cirrhosis, liver cancer as well as when going to the doctor. Periodically, abnormal lesions can be detected early.
In response to the question that it is difficult to survive 6 months with liver cancer – is this true, Assoc: “This is absolutely not true, liver cancer patients, if detected early and treated, have a 5-year survival rate of up to 70-80%.
Japan is one of the countries that is very successful in developing liver cancer at an early stage. Studies show that nearly 90% of patients with liver cancer are detected when the tumor size is less than 3cm. That’s because in Japan, there are screening programs for liver cancer in high-risk groups (6 months/time) and very high-risk groups (3 months/time).
In Vietnam, on the contrary, only about 20% of liver cancer patients are detected early, the rest are at intermediate stage, late stage, so the prognosis is also worse. Therefore, folk often say that liver cancer is quick to die, but they do not know that the patient who comes to the hospital is in the final stage.
Prevention: Must reduce risk factors for disease
According to Assoc. Prof. Cam Phuong, Vietnamese medicine has updated with advances in diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer in the world. From surgery, liver transplantation, radiofrequency ablation, microwave or embolization, selective radiotherapy and systemic treatments have access to world-class advances.
Therefore, when unfortunately suffering from liver cancer, people can rest assured that the team of health ministries in Vietnam has diagnosed, assessed the stage well and selected the most optimal treatment method for the patient.
At Bach Mai Hospital every Wednesday afternoon, there is a Council to discuss gastrointestinal cancers, including liver cancer. Patients diagnosed with liver cancer will go through this consultation to assess what stage the patient is at, and then choose the best treatment for the patient.
According to Dr. Phuong, liver cancer is completely preventable by minimizing risk factors. And especially to stay away from liver cancer, it is necessary to: Vaccinate with hepatitis B vaccine; A reasonable diet, do not drink too much alcohol, limit the use of foods that are harmful to the liver such as: toxic chemicals, molds…; People with fatty liver, hepatitis B, C, cirrhosis need to treat stable diseases to limit changes into malignant lesions.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
