But also suffering from cancer, some money is spent by few people; Some people live for five years, 10 years or even longer.
If you have cancer, do you have to live a long life?
With the continuous improvement of modern medical diagnosis and treatment technology, cancer has become a chronic disease. If cancer can be found early, the cure rate is relatively high. Even for advanced cancer, after scientific treatment, the 5-year survival rate of patients is constantly improving, and it is common to live to 10 years or more.
Please look at the following celebrities who also have cancer but live long:
Song Meiling was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40 and lived to be 104.
Qin Yi, an old artist, 1966 diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Now he is 97 years old and still very beautiful.
Huo Yingdong was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 60, and has not recurred for more than 20 years.
Warren Buffett, who suffered from prostate cancer seven years ago, is still in good health and is still in the stock market.
Kai-fu Lee suffered from stage ⅳ lymphoma in 20 13 and was cured in August of 20 15. He also wrote "Born to Die: I Got Death Credit", which re-examined the meaning of life.
Why do some people live long because they also have cancer?
What are the factors that affect the survival of cancer patients? You don't know. You don't know? Know that you don't know? I don't know. You know what? I know. You know what?
But no matter what cognitive stage you are in, you need to fully understand the factors that affect the survival of cancer:
1, cancer type
In fact, cancer does not mean terminal illness. Different types of cancer have different survival periods. Taking breast cancer as an example, it is one of the most common cancers among women at present, and the cure rate of breast cancer has been greatly improved in recent years. If you are a patient with early breast cancer, the possibility of survival for more than five years is as high as 95%, and the possibility of complete cure is 80%. Even in the advanced stage of breast cancer, nearly 36% patients can survive for more than five years.
Small cell lung cancer is so malignant that oncologists are afraid of it. It is often fierce and has a high mortality rate, but it is also "refreshing". If we strengthen control and deal with it reasonably at the first time, we will soon turn the corner. And once safe, strengthen control and survive for a long time!
Alveolar carcinoma is often lovely and progresses slowly. It can stay in the body for seven or eight years or ten years, but it is not sensitive to many treatment methods!
In ovarian cancer, serous papillary carcinoma and mucinous papillary carcinoma are persistent and have high recurrence rate, but they are very sensitive to chemotherapy in the early stage.
Clear cell ovarian cancer is not sensitive to chemotherapy, but sensitive to traditional Chinese medicine!
2. Cancer staging
If cancer is found, you will think about further asking what stage it is. When it comes to staging, people basically have a general idea, that is, whether it is early or late, and sometimes there is an intermediate stage. Some doctors will simply say this when explaining.
TNM staging system is mainly used for staging malignant tumors. According to this staging system, it can be divided into 1, 2, 3 and 4 stages. Of course, each major stage may be subdivided, such as 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b and so on. This staging can help us to judge the prognosis. Usually, the earlier the stage, the better the prognosis, but it is not absolute because there are other factors. Second, in order to guide the treatment, it is very important that different staging strategies are different. Therefore, it is not easy to treat accurately without staging.
If it roughly corresponds to that TNM stage, it also corresponds to 1, 2, 3, 4. Generally speaking, phases 1 and 2 belong to the early stage, phase 3 belongs to the middle stage, sometimes called local late stage, and phase 4 belongs to the late stage. Usually 1 phase and phase 2 are mainly treated by surgery, and the cure probability is high. Most of the third stage is still surgical treatment, but sometimes chemotherapy or radiotherapy is needed first, and then adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy after operation. In the late stage, basically no surgery (except palliative surgery), systemic drug therapy (chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy, etc.). ) mainly used. Of course, this depends on the specific cancer, and cancer treatment should be treated in a specific situation.
Step 3: Treatment
Once diagnosed as malignant tumor, how to choose an effective treatment plan is the key to the success or failure of treatment. Whether the treatment is successful or not is directly related to the patient's life and death, which determines the patient's survival time.
The main reason why some cancer patients fail in treatment is not because of the cancer itself, but because of misdiagnosis, wrong treatment or improper treatment, such as not using the most suitable treatment and losing the chance of cure, which has also caused great difficulties for follow-up treatment, and some even can only take remedial measures, which has increased the difficulty of cure.
Sun Yan, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, once said in an interview that he has worked in the cancer hospital for more than 50 years, and 80% of the cancer patients in our hospital have been cured (5-year survival rate). In contrast, the overall 5-year survival rate of cancer patients in China is only about 30%. Why is this? Why is the cure rate of doctors suffering from cancer so much higher than ordinary people? Is it because the doctor drugged himself? ! Actually, it's not like this, just because I chose a more suitable treatment.
4. Recurrence detection
Cancer is likely to reappear because the remaining cancer cells have not been found in the body. The number of these cells may increase until they aggregate and form new lesions.
The possibility of cancer recurrence depends on the type of cancer initially diagnosed, whether the first operation is completely removed, even whether the follow-up care after treatment is appropriate and whether the lifestyle is healthy.
The detection value of tumor markers can judge whether there are signs of recurrence or metastasis of cancer cells in patients.
Tumor markers refer to substances produced by the synthetic release of tumor cells or the stimulation of the body by tumors. Tumor markers are very sensitive indicators for some patients, and their fluctuations are related to the progress of the disease. However, many patients do not have suitable tumor markers. For patients whose indexes are consistent with the trend of illness, regular review is needed.
If the content of tumor markers in blood is relatively high, it is necessary to check whether the primary tumor focus recurs. If the primary tumor focus shows no signs of recurrence, it is necessary to check whether there is a secondary tumor focus, that is, whether there are signs of metastasis.
If the content of tumor markers is within the reference value, it means that the tumor cells are inactive and the postoperative rehabilitation treatment is very successful.
Of course, whether the tumor recurs can be detected by imaging examination (PET/CT, magnetic resonance imaging, CT, etc.). ) in addition to tumor markers.
Step 5 manage side effects
Most people will have side effects when receiving treatment. However, survivors are often surprised to find that some side effects may persist after the treatment period. These effects are called long-term side effects. If you have received treatment that is known to have some long-term side effects, your doctor may suggest that you have some tests regularly.
People who receive radiotherapy for head, neck or throat undergo thyroid examination every year.
Lung function test of people who receive Blenoxane or stem cell or bone marrow transplantation.
People who receive chest radiotherapy or high-dose anthracycline drugs need regular electrocardiogram examination (ECG or EKG). Anthracycline chemotherapy drugs, including adriamycin and epirubicin, may cause side effects of cardiovascular system.
For women who received chest radiotherapy when they were young, regular mammograms were performed.
Regular X-ray or CT scans or blood tests are performed to detect whether there is secondary cancer.
6. Maintain immunity
Maintaining normal immunity is the core of anticancer. So pay attention to your immune status. Usually you can test yourself, of course, you can also do some immunity tests according to your feelings, such as whether you are easy to catch a cold, have a fever, get infected, etc.
The number of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of tumor patients is abnormal, which shows that CD3+ cells and CD4+ cells are obviously decreased, while CD8+ cells are obviously increased, and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio is obviously decreased, indicating that the cellular immune function of tumor patients is in an immunosuppressive state, and the ability of patients to identify and kill mutant cells is reduced, which leads to the growth and metastasis of tumors.
7. Negative nitrogen balance
Because cancer is a chronic wasting disease, tumor cells are frantically plundering nutrition, so during the treatment period, the quality of protein synthesized in patients' bodies is less than that decomposed, which means that the amount of nitrogen ingested by food is less than that of excreta.
At this time, the patient's body is in a state of negative nitrogen balance. During this period, we will find that our muscles are decreasing, and our arms and thighs are no longer solid and become slack, which is the result of the decomposition of our skeletal muscles.
0-3 years after 65438+ treatment is the most dangerous time, and recurrence and metastasis mostly occur during this period, which is also the time when cancer patients should strengthen nutrition and enhance their physique during the whole rehabilitation period.
During this period, we must eat more foods rich in protein, so that the quality of protein synthesized in the body is greater than the amount of decomposition, and the amount of nitrogen ingested in the body is greater than the amount of nitrogen excreted, thus achieving a positive nitrogen balance. Only in this way can we ensure that our bodies have enough protein supply and let our muscles return to normal (content and proportion).
So many friends will say, I eat well, why can't my muscles grow? I want to tell you here that this is because the gastrointestinal function is affected after radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and the digestion and absorption ability is too poor. Although the nutrition is eaten, it is not absorbed into the blood, and of course no muscle can grow.
So what should we do? In this case, we can use digestive enzymes and probiotics to improve digestion, or directly eat special nutrients for cancer patients. The special nutritional supplement for tumor patients is a nutritional supplement specially prepared according to the physical characteristics and disease characteristics of tumor patients, and it is the best nutritional supplement for tumor patients after surgical radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
8. Sleep management
The survey shows that 36.27% of cancer patients have sleep disorders, 28.42% are worried about family pressure, and 13.2 1% of cancer patients have suicidal tendencies in the past week. Generally speaking, sleep disorder, family stress and depression are the three most common psychological problems of cancer patients.
Cancer patients often suffer from psychological stress, pain and other discomforts, leading to sleep disorders, waking up early or often during sleep, getting worse rest, aggravating psychological burdens such as anxiety and irritability, and forming a vicious circle with the disease, which may eventually affect the overall prognosis of patients.
Therefore, at the right time of cancer patients' treatment, psychological counseling, drugs and other treatments can improve their sleep state and help them recover from the disease.
9. Join the "circle of friends"
Among the patients who participated in the "20 19 White Paper on the Quality of Life of Cancer Patients in China", more than 72. 12% said they needed rehabilitation guidance, 52.24% needed psychological counseling services, and 54.55% needed communication and mutual assistance between patients and friends, accounting for more than half of the patients interviewed, which showed the social problems faced by cancer patients to some extent.
In the correlation analysis in the White Paper on Quality of Life of Cancer Patients in China (20 19), it was found that more patient organizations were added online or offline, and the overall quality of life and treatment mentality of patients showed a good trend.
10, diet and exercise
The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) has put forward eight health suggestions about exercise and diet for cancer patients. Although these suggestions cannot treat cancer by themselves, they can improve the general situation and tolerance of cancer treatment, thus helping to improve the prognosis of patients.
American cancer institute's health advice on exercise diet;
Try to be thin, but avoid being underweight;
Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day;
Avoid drinking sugary drinks and limit high-calorie foods;
Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans;
Limit the intake of red meat (livestock meat, such as pigs, cattle and sheep) and avoid eating processed meat;
If you have to drink alcohol, men should not exceed 2 cups a day and women should not exceed 1 cup;
Limit sodium intake;
Don't rely on nutritional supplements to treat cancer.
Write it at the end
For cancer treatment, the doctor's attitude is "don't do what you shouldn't do, try your best to do it well"; The patient's attitude can also be more open-minded, "accept what cannot be changed and change what can be changed."
There are about 10 factors affecting the survival of patients. This paper summarizes and classifies the influence, hoping to help you.
There are many chronic diseases that cannot be cured, but they can survive for a long time through standardized drug treatment, even reaching the life span of normal people! Such as diabetes, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and chronic bronchitis. Similarly, many advanced cancers are incurable, but if sensitive treatment measures can be found to make patients with advanced cancer live 20 to 30 years or even longer, then cancer will not be terrible!
Like this patient with cholangiocarcinoma, he was diagnosed at the age of 73, and was asymptomatic for four years through bile duct drainage and radioactive particle implantation, at the age of 77 (this case comes from Director Wen of Xiangxi Cancer Hospital).
Cancer is not a chronic disease, but it is hopeful to become one.
There are two kinds of cancer: one is curable, such as early lung cancer; The other is incurable and can only prolong the survival time, such as many advanced cancers.
Over the years, many doctors and scientists have been looking for various ways to enable patients with advanced cancer to live for 3 to 5 years, and even some patients can live for 5 to 10 years. In addition to palliative surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, there are dazzling targeted therapy, immunotherapy, ablation therapy, traditional Chinese medicine and so on. These methods often need to be combined to play the greatest role.
This is a patient with multiple lung metastases from thyroid cancer, who has survived for 4 and a half years through comprehensive treatment with chemotherapy as the mainstay.
What an 8 1 year-old woman, with advanced lung adenocarcinoma invading the pleura, caused a lot of pleural effusion. He has survived for more than 4 years through targeted therapy, and he is 85 years old this year.
This is a middle-aged man with a history of hepatitis B for many years, who was diagnosed with right lobe liver cancer. Interventional chemoembolization combined with radiofrequency ablation has been 7 years, and there is no recurrence!
This is a 62-year-old smoker with squamous cell carcinoma in the middle lobe of his right lung. One and a half years after surgical resection, it recurred and formed a mass at the hilum of the lung. It has been more than seven years since fixed-point radiotherapy killed cancer cells and the tumor shrank.
If the vast majority of advanced cancers can survive as lucky as the above patients for a long time, then cancer is similar to chronic diseases and not so terrible!
What does cancer mean to most people? In recent years, the smog has become more and more serious, the pressure of work and life has increased, the efforts to control tobacco and alcohol have been insufficient, and other bad habits, the aging population, environmental pollution and food safety problems have caused the number of cancer patients to increase.
Cancer is the normal state and one of the four chronic diseases with the highest mortality rate in the world. The first two are cancer and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. According to the statistics of cancer in China published by Ca Cancer J Clin (20 15), cancer has become the leading cause of death in China. People are not very worried when talking about cardiovascular diseases, but when talking about cancer, most people will talk about cancer discoloration. Why is cancer chronic? In the 1980s, it was reported in the United States that14 of the 80-year-old people had cancer at autopsy, but there were no related manifestations of cancer. Their deaths were all caused by other diseases or factors. It can be seen that the occurrence and development of cancer has experienced a long-term slow and gradual process of/kloc-0. Cancer can be controlled or even cured through early detection and standardized treatment. The World Health Organization, the definition of cancer, has changed from an incurable disease to a chronic disease that can be treated or even cured. As long as prevention, early detection and timely treatment are strengthened, more and more new drugs will appear, and cancer will become a chronic disease in the future, which can be controlled and treated.
1/3 Cancer can prevent long-term chronic infection. Smoking, excessive drinking, insufficient fruit intake and staying up late for a long time are the main causes of cancer. Besides external factors, underwear is also very important. Long-term depression will affect metabolic immunity and hormone levels. Is closely related to the occurrence of cancer. Not using tobacco, adopting an active and healthy diet, maintaining moderate exercise and drinking alcohol can prevent cancer. Professor Stewart pointed out that although the medical community has long been clear that many factors lead to cancer, such as unhealthy smoking and drinking, obesity, lack of exercise and so on. However, these problems still spread in low-and middle-income countries. On the contrary, European and American countries advocate a healthy lifestyle, and the incidence and mortality of cancer have dropped significantly.
1/3 cancer can be cured in three early hours. The "three early" here refers to early diagnosis, early detection and early treatment. Early detection means that some tumors can be found by AFP and other medical examinations, early lung cancer can be found by low-dose spiral CT scanning of the chest, early prostate cancer can also be found by routine prostate cancer, CEA index is increased, and gastric cancer can also be found. With the development of molecular biology and genetic testing technology, evidence of cancer may be found in a drop of blood and a mouthful of sputum in the future.
1/3 Advanced cancer benefits from multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are three conventional treatments for lung cancer. Early lung cancer can be cured by these methods. The development of minimally invasive surgery, precise radiotherapy and targeted therapy has brought great benefits to cancer. Who specifically pointed out that through palliative care, the suffering of more than 90% patients with advanced cancer can be alleviated.
Strictly speaking, it is too early to call cancer a chronic disease.
The so-called chronic disease generally refers to a large class of diseases that do not constitute infection and accumulate for a long time. Chronic diseases have a long course and are irreversible to some extent. With the accumulation of time, the harm to human body will be greater, but it will not endanger life in a short time, such as: chronic bronchitis of respiratory system, obstructive emphysema, pulmonary heart disease; Chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of digestive system, chronic glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome of urinary system, hypertension and dilated heart disease of cardiovascular system, diabetes of metabolic system and rheumatoid arthritis involving rheumatism immunity. Although we can control these diseases, we can't cure them. With the passage of time, the damage will gradually increase, and ultimately endanger the life of patients. This process is mostly ten years or decades.
For cancer, although we also have control methods, the harm of cancer is far more serious than the above-mentioned chronic diseases, because most cancers have no symptoms in the early stage, and many confirmed patients are already in the advanced stage. For the treatment of advanced cancer, we are far from reaching the goal of long-term control. Even the latest targeted therapy and immunotherapy are pursuing a 5-year survival rate, while the 10-year survival rate is relatively "extravagant".
Turning cancer into a chronic disease is also our current goal. With the rapid development of oncology, the desire to control cancer for a long time and truly become a chronic disease may not be far away.
Why is cancer a chronic disease? At present, this is more of an expectation, or only a partial realization. It is really turning cancer into a chronic disease, but it is far from being fully realized. When cancer becomes a chronic disease such as hypertension, although there is no cure, there are enough drugs, which can be controlled for a long time through drugs (mainly oral, so there is no need for repeated hospitalization and convenient management) and lifestyle management, so that cancer can survive for a long time and will not die of cancer, even if cancer is still there, then we can really say that cancer is a chronic disease at this time. This goal is far from being achieved, but it has been partially achieved. For example, although some advanced cancers cannot be cured, they can survive with tumors for many years through treatment. Now some advanced cancers may live with tumors for seven or eight years or even more than ten years, such as some advanced lung adenocarcinoma and some advanced breast cancer. Pay attention to some, not all, so it is still far from the goal of chronic diseases, but we are already working hard in this direction.
Therefore, an important reason why cancer is a chronic disease is that cancer is controllable, not acute. A person who has cancer usually doesn't say that he will die in a few days. Of course, if his illness has reached a critical stage, it is another matter, which means that this person actually got cancer a long time ago, not just a few days ago, but now his illness has developed to a late stage.
It is not only controllable to say that cancer is a chronic disease, but also because cancer can be prevented, screened early and intervened to reduce the incidence. Preventable, treatable and controllable, cancer is of course a chronic disease, but it can't really be a chronic disease at present. Work hard.
Explain the "slowness" of cancer.
Cancer has "three slowness", so we say it is a standard chronic disease.
First, it is very slow from the "arrival" of carcinogenic damage to the completion of cancer!
For example, the famous X-ray radiation injury causes cancer. It takes at least three years from the beginning of radiation damage to the unconscious appearance of cancer symptoms.
According to the law of tumor proliferation, it is estimated that it will take 3-5 years or even longer.
Asbestos fiber causes lung cancer, and it usually takes more than ten years from exposure to diagnosis.
We don't know the details of what happened from the initial injury to the first cancer cell. However, he is really a slow process, without any objection.
Second, from diagnosis to physical collapse, the progress is also slow.
Theoretically, the progress rate of cancer is constant. It should be a continuous process from cancer-causing injury to complete destruction of the body.
In this case, from diagnosis to doubling in size, from onset to diagnosis is very slow.
According to statistics, it takes an average of 6.2 years for gastric cancer to double from diagnosis!
Third, it is very slow for cancer to achieve reversal from limited tumor growth to complete reversal.
Any cancer that has been diagnosed, if properly treated, will take 2-3 years or longer to return to normal.
Therefore, the cure of cancer is usually described as long-term survival of tumor.
These are the reasons why cancer is a chronic disease.
The lesson we should remember is—
1, chronic cancer cannot be treated as acute injury.
Before treatment, it is very important to stabilize the disease, limit tumor growth, eliminate carcinogenic damage and maintain the vitality of the body.
Acute treatment, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and emergency means to remove the focus are actually unnecessary and destroy the vitality of the body.
2. After the diagnosis, the progress speed varies greatly, and some of them break away from the "chronic" characteristics and become acute, which makes people collapse in a short time. This is not the problem of cancer itself, but the psychological imbalance after diagnosis. Because of the intense pressure to stimulate the injury, it directly destroyed the body!
3. Therefore, the construction of psychological balance is very important and key to treat cancer and deal with tumor injury.
The answer is above.
Why is cancer a chronic disease?
Chronic disease refers to a long time, several years, more than ten years or even decades. The etiology is not clear, and it is generally the interaction of many factors, such as environmental pollution, living habits, eating habits, life stress and so on. It is very harmful to people and causes great losses, such as cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, gout and so on. At present, the number of deaths from chronic diseases accounts for more than 80% of the total number of deaths, and the medical expenses are also more than 80%, which shows how much the chronic diseases have affected the development of people, families and countries.
Take cancer as an example, it is basically acquired and has little genetic relationship. For example, in cancer villages, the incidence of cancer is high in some industries, because the diet structure, environmental pollution and living habits of the villages are similar, and the water they drink and the food they eat are similar. Only in this way, there are many cancer patients in a certain industry, which may be because this industry is exposed to many carcinogens. For example, many stomach cancers in Korea are caused by eating pickled kimchi for a long time.
When people are born, there are basically no cancer cells, but with growth, some needed nutrients cannot be reached and they are invaded by foreign countries, such as poisoning, pollution, trauma, extreme fatigue and excessive pressure. , causing some cells to be damaged and necrotic. If these cells cannot be repaired in time, they may become cancerous and form cancer cells. If these cancer cells want to survive, they must compete with normal cells for nutrition. If a person's immune system is good, cancer cells can't be taken away or won't be won. There will be no great development, and people will basically remain healthy, but many people do not exercise, eat poorly, and even overeat, smoke and drink, and barbecue late at night. , will reduce people's immunity, more and more damaged cells will reduce people's immunity. Cancer cells will take the opportunity to rob nutrition, and cancer may form. This process is usually several years, more than ten years, or even decades, so cancer is a chronic disease.
If you understand the formation mechanism of cancer, you don't have to worry. You can prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases by learning to live scientifically and improving people's immunity.
Cancer has accumulated for at least ten years, even during pregnancy, so cancer is indeed a chronic disease. It's just that people ignore the symptoms, use some heat-clearing or antibiotics, and don't seek the source, so that they become cancer.
Why is cancer a chronic disease?
First of all, the onset of cancer is a long-term process, and the generation of cancer cells may be the result of long-term effects of unhealthy lifestyles.
And it will take a long time for cancer cells to develop into cancer.
Many cancers have no specific symptoms at first, and they are all discovered by physical examination.
For example, lung cancer is caused by long-term smoking, and early lung cancer is mostly found by physical examination.
If it is discovered after symptoms appear, it is mostly in the middle and late stages.
Most cancers are not as sudden as acute diseases, and the symptoms are obvious.
Secondly, the development of cancer is also chronic, and the fastest-growing liver cancer and pancreatic cancer are not fatal in a few days.
Therefore, the key to cancer is prevention.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle and reducing the influence of carcinogenic factors can prevent cancer.
At the same time, early detection and treatment can also delay the development of cancer.
I am the chief physician of public health. It is my duty to spread health knowledge and skills, answer health-related questions and share the experience of healthy old-age care and scientific medical care! Let everyone live a healthy life, feel safe and happy, which is my wish!
Because cancer does not happen overnight, many cancers often take months or even years from occurrence to discovery. Even if symptoms appear in the early stage, they are not typical and obvious, and are easily overlooked. Just like tadpoles in the river, it is not terrible to grow into toads. Take colon cancer as an example, it takes about 10- 15 years from normal epithelium to hyperplasia, to adenoma and finally to canceration. Although there is such a long incubation period, it is no different from ordinary people in the early stage, but when there are obvious symptoms or diagnosis, it is often in the middle and late stage. After local development, the focus of cancer often spreads and metastasizes to a distant place, which increases the difficulty of its treatment. In addition, cancer cells consume more energy than normal cells, which leads to emaciation, malnutrition and decreased immunity, and ultimately affects the functions of multiple organs.