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Doctor's Red Flag Signs Of Seven Silent Killer Cancers - From Bloating To Fatigue
A doctor has revealed the red flag warning signs of seven silent killer cancers - including bowel, liver and ovarian.
Silent cancer is a term used to describe the disease where symptoms can go unnoticed or mistaken for something else. This can lead to sufferers not seeking help soon enough - and it could mean it's too late.
Dr Ahmed El-Modir, consultant oncologist at Spire Little Aston Hospital has given seven silent cancers and the risk factors behind them. They include bowel, cervical, liver, lung, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer, Liverpool Echo reports.
Bowel cancerBowel cancer is one of the most common cancer types diagnosed in the UK, the NHS says. It particularly effects older people, with most of those diagnosed over the age of 60.
Persistent abdominal pain, bloating, cramps and changes in your bowel habits (eg constipation, diarrhoea or thinner stools) are common early signs to look out for.
Another red flag could be blood in your stools, have the urge to open your bowels even after recently passing stools, and unintentionally lose weight.
The biggest risk factor for bowel cancer is age but your risk is also increased if there is a family history or lifestyle factors such as smoking and drinking.
Liver cancerHow serious liver cancer is depends on where it is, how big it is and whether it has spread. Many symptoms of liver cancer relate to digestion issues such as nausea, vomiting, paler stools, darker urine and feeling full after eating only a small amount of food.
A lump on the top right side of your abdomen, feel pain in this area, and experience abdominal swelling that isn't caused by eating, are also early signals something is wrong.
Other symptoms include jaundice, where the whites of your eyes become yellow, pain in your right shoulder, unintentional weight loss, loss of appetite, fatigue, fever and feeling unwell.
Your risk of liver cancer is higher if you are male, have a family history, are aged over 60 or if you have diabetes, hepatitis or liver flukes.
Cervical cancerCervical cancer usually grows very slowly. How serious it is depends on how big it is, if it has spread and your general health. Symptoms include unusual vaginal bleeding, pain during sex, pain in your lower back, between your hip bones (pelvis), or in your lower tummy.
If you have another condition like fibroids or endometriosis, you may get symptoms like these regularly.
You might find you get used to them. But it's important to be checked by a GP if your symptoms change, get worse, or do not feel normal for you.
According to Dr El-Modir, Cervical cancer is more common in those aged under 45 and those with a weakened immune system, for example, due to HIV or AIDS. Your risk of cervical cancer is also higher if you've given birth to children before age 17, had multiple births, have not been vaccinated against HPV or previously had bladder, kidney, vaginal or vulval cancer.
Lung cancerLung cancer is one of the most common and serious types of cancer. More than 43,000 people are diagnosed with the condition every year in the UK.
The main symptoms of lung cancer include:
Less common symptoms of lung cancer include:
Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50. Many symptoms overlap with period symptoms including abdominal bloating, back pain, fatigue and persistent pain or tenderness in your pelvic area.
Other symptoms include constipation, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, feeling full after eating only a small amount, unintentional weight loss, sudden urges to urinate and urinating more often.
The risk of developing ovarian cancer increases with age but also with a family history, have endometriosis or diabetes and have never used any hormonal contraception.
Pancreatic cancerPancreatic cancer is a cancer that's found anywhere in the pancreas. Many symptoms include bloating, changes in your stools, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
You may also experience back pain and pain in your upper abdomen, which feel better when you lean forward and worse when you lie down or eat. Other symptoms include jaundice, where the whites of your eyes become yellow, unintentional weight loss, loss of appetite, fever and fatigue.
You may be more likely to get pancreatic cancer if you are over the age of 75 or have a family history. Certain medical conditions also increase your risk, including chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, gallstones and metabolic syndrome.
Prostate cancerProstate cancer usually develops slowly, so there may be no signs for many years. Symptoms of prostate cancer usually only occur once the tumour is large enough to press against the urethra.
Symptoms include difficulty urinating, needing to urinate more often and the sensation that your bladder is not completely empty even after urinating.
Your risk of prostate cancer increases with age and if you are overweight or obese, or have a close relative who had prostate cancer. Your risk is also increased due to ethnicity as well as diet.
WHY OVARIAN CANCER IS CALLED A 'SILENT KILLER'
About 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.
At the time of diagnosis, 60 percent of ovarian cancers will have already spread to other parts of the body, bringing the five-year survival rate down to 30 percent from 90 percent in the earliest stage.
It's diagnosed so late because of its location in the pelvis, according to Dr Ronny Drapkin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who's been studying the disease for more than two decades.
'The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumor there can grow quite large before it actually becomes noticeable,' Dr Drapkin told MailOnline.
The first symptoms to arise with ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because tumors can start to press upward.
When a patient complains of gastrointestinal discomfort, doctors are more likely to focus on diet change and other causes than suggest an ovarian cancer screening.
Dr Drapkin said it's usually not until after a patient endures persistent gastrointestinal symptoms that they will receive a screening that reveals the cancer.
'Ovarian cancer is often said to be a silent killer because it doesn't have early symptoms, when in fact it does have symptoms, they're just very general and could be caused by other things,' he said.
'One of the things I tell women is that nobody knows your body as well as you do. If you feel something isn't right, something's probably not right.'
AdvertisementNew Biomarkers For Ovarian Cancer May Help Diagnose Condition Sooner
Ovarian cancer is any cancerous growth that starts in the ovaries — organs low in the abdomen that produce eggs in females.
Rates of ovarian cancer have decreased in recent years but, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.
Symptoms of ovarian cancer, which mainly develops in older women, can be mistaken for signs of other gynecological or gastrointestinal disorders, as they may include:
If ovarian cancer is detected early, treatment is usually effective, with some 94% of people living for at least 5 years following diagnosis. However, only about 20% of ovarian cancers are found at an early stage, and there are currently no reliable screening tests.
New research led by Nagoya University in Japan has now identified three previously unknown membrane proteins in ovarian cancer, which can be isolated from body fluids, such as blood, urine, and saliva.
The authors of the study, which is published in Science Advances, suggest that these findings may lead to an earlier diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Dr. Samuel Godfrey, research information lead at Cancer Research UK, not involved in this study, explained to Medical News Today what the research achieved:
"For this study, researchers explored whether tiny 'bubbles' that come from ovarian cancer cells could act as warning signals for the disease, and their results suggest this approach could be worth exploring further."
The researchers extracted extracellular vesicles (EVs) from high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most common type of ovarian cancer.
Cancer cells produce EVs to promote cell growth and survival and increase invasive and metastatic activity. Exosomes, a type of small EV, play an important role in cancer progression.
Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the researchers then analyzed the proteins contained in small and medium/large EVs.
"The validation steps for the identified proteins were tough because we had to try a lot of antibodies before we found a good target," Dr. Akira Yokoi, lead author, and assistant professor at the Nagoya University Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Japan, notes in a statement.
"As a result, it became clear that the small and medium/large EVs are loaded with clearly different molecules. Further investigation revealed that small EVs are more suitable biomarkers than the medium and large type. We identified the membrane proteins FR-alpha, Claudin-3, and TACSTD2 in the small EVs associated with HGSC," he adds.
Having identified the proteins, they had to work out how to separate the EVs from blood samples, to determine whether they could be used to detect ovarian cancer.
To capture the EVs, the group used specialized technology using nanowires. They found that polyketone chain-coated nanowires (pNWs) were ideal for separating exosomes from blood samples.
"We must have tried three-four different coatings on the nanowires. Although polyketones are a completely new material to use to coat this type of nanowire, in the end, they were such a good fit."
– Dr. Akira Yokoi
"Diagnosing cancer earlier is perhaps the most important thing we can do to boost survival, but doctors lack reliable tests to help them do this for most cancers. Ovarian cancer becomes much harder to treat at later stages, and its symptoms can easily go unnoticed," Dr. Godfrey told us.
At present, only one biomarker, Cancer Antigen 125 (CA125), is available for ovarian cancer diagnosis. Although CA125 has played an important role in the screening, treatment, and follow-up phases of ovarian cancer management over the past 40 years, it has shown little promise in early diagnosis.
If a person presents with symptoms that suggest ovarian cancer, the doctor may use a number of tests to diagnose it. These might include a transvaginal ultrasound examination, CT scan, or laparoscopy — in which a small incision is used to insert a camera into the abdomen — to look for any growths.
However, the only sure way to diagnose ovarian cancer is by a biopsy, which involves removing part of the tumor for laboratory analysis. A diagnostic method that used a simple blood test would be a huge step forward.
The study authors suggest that each of the three new proteins they discovered may be useful biomarkers for detecting ovarian cancer at an earlier stage.
"Our findings showed that each of the three identified proteins is useful as a biomarker for HGSCs," Dr. Yokoi says. "The results of this research suggest that these diagnostic biomarkers can be used as predictive markers for specific therapies."
While welcoming the research, Dr. Godfrey stressed that these were early findings.
"The research only used a small number of clinical samples, so it's too soon to say whether the technology could reliably help us spot ovarian cancer early," he told us.
"We need to see more research into diagnostic tools like this because, if they work, they could make big changes to how we treat a variety of cancer types," he added.
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