▲There are many causes of abdominal pain, and differential diagnosis is required; the picture is a situational photo, and the characters in the picture have nothing to do with this article. (Photo provided / Chen Xinyou)
Text / Chen Xinyou
In recent years, news, newspapers and magazines have successively reported that celebrities and dignitaries have suffered from pancreatic cancer or ampullary cancer. The difficulty of diagnosis and poor prognosis of these two types of cancers are troubling. Usually, patients may come to the doctor because of upper abdominal discomfort, weight loss or loss of appetite. It is often interpreted by the patient as a stomach problem for many years, but this is not the case.
Lack of pain nerves is difficult to diagnose and treat
Why are these two cancers so difficult to diagnose and treat? The “pancreas” and “biliary system” in the human digestive organs are located behind the stomach and duodenum; the “ampulla” is located at the intersection of the “pancreatic duct” and “biliary tract”, and is only about the size of a soybean Here, pancreatic juice and bile converge and then flow into the duodenum.
Please read on…
Due to the lack of obvious pain nerves in the internal organs of the human body, there will be no obvious pain sensation when tumors occur in these places.
Usually, when the tumor is large enough to block the pancreatic duct and bile duct, bile will accumulate and cannot flow into the duodenum, and then “jaundice symptoms” such as yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes will appear. The urine may turn dark and brown, and the stool will be Lack of bile staining and grayish white. In addition, there may also be symptoms such as poor appetite and weight loss due to violation of the stomach.
In fact, the etiology of pancreatic cancer is still unclear. Old age, family history of pancreatic cancer, smoking, high-fat diet, alcoholism, and chronic pancreatitis (7-80% are due to alcoholism) ), gastric surgery, etc., are all possible risk factors; there is currently no clear risk factor for ampullary cancer.
For these high-risk patients, it is recommended that the elderly over a certain age can receive abdominal ultrasonography and blood tests every few years. Find the tumor before symptoms appear, treat it as soon as possible, and seek medical attention as soon as symptoms appear.
At present, both tomography and MRI have good detection rates for gallbladder and pancreas-related tumors larger than two centimeters, but the detection sensitivity for pancreatic tumors less than two centimeters is only about 85%. Sonic inspection can achieve a detection sensitivity of about 90%.
As for prevention, eating more vegetables and fruits on weekdays, not smoking, less alcohol, less oil, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are still the unchanging rules of cancer prevention.
Upper abdomen bloating and loss of appetite should be alerted
If you are over 40 years old and have upper abdominal distention, persistent abdominal pain, weight loss, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea or jaundice, and the cause is unknown, you should be alert to the possibility of pancreatic cancer, and you should go to the hospital’s gastroenterology and hepatobiliary department as soon as possible for an abdominal ultrasound. Sonication, computed tomography, MRI, etc.
(The author is a gastroenterologist at Cathay General Hospital)
▲Because the location of the pancreas is relatively secret and lacks obvious pain nerves, it is not easy to detect lesions early. (Photo credit: shutterstock)
☆Do not miss health news, follow by likefan page。
☆For more important medical news, please go toFree Health Network。
No need to draw, no need to grab, now use the APP to watch the news to ensure that you will win the lottery every dayClick me to download APP
Follow me to see how the event works