Doctor reminds: From inflammation to cancer, there may only be two or three steps!

Public popular science and science communication! Click on the blue wordone key to follow

Reviewer: Chen Haixu, Second Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Deputy Director, Master’s Tutor

Mr. Fang (a pseudonym) in his 60s always felt nauseous more than 2 years ago, so he went to the hospital for treatment. The doctor considered that Mr. Fang was in his 60s and had never done After a comprehensive physical examination, it was recommended that he undergo a gastroscopy.

Mr. Fang’s gastroscopy results indicated: non-atrophic gastritis with erosions, reflux esophagitis; hyperemia in the middle esophagus, the nature of which is to be pathological.

Severe reflux esophagitis partly explains why Mr. Fang is always nauseous, the attending doctor told Mr. Fang’s esophagus has erosions and inflammation, and is accompanied by “mild atypical squamous epithelium”, some of which are early esophageal tumors, and some of which may be just inflammation, but no matter which one, it is indistinguishable from his long-term smoking and heavy drinking. It’s open. However, Mr. Fang, who was very confident in his physical condition, did not take it to heart.

It was not until March 2022 that Mr. Fang finally decided to seek medical attention again due to the increasingly obvious symptoms of swallowing discomfort, and this time Mr. Fang himself was no longer the same. It was so “stubborn” before, but unfortunately, Mr. Fang’s gastroscope and pathological results showed that the lesion had progressed to poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, invading the submucosa, and had missed the best time for endoscopic treatment. .

From inflammation to cancer, maybe only two steps!

In 2015, an article “Relationship between Diet Nutrition and Inflammation-Cancer Risk” published in the Journal of the Second Military Medical University stated that the inflammatory environment in the body is an important factor leading to various cancers. Risk factors, many cancers occur on the basis of chronic inflammation, such as:

smoking→tracheitis→silicosis and lung cancer

Gastritis→Helicobacter pylori→Gastric cancer

Chronic ulcerative colitis→colon cancer< /span>

Chronic Hepatitis-Liver Cancer

except In addition, the persistent inflammatory response will lead to necrosis and proliferation of somatic cells, giving cancer an opportunity. Some types of daily diet may induce persistent inflammation in the body and even accelerate the development of cancer.

Gallery copyright image Reprinted with permission

Liu Bin, a radiologist at Luzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan Province, said, “Inflammation is sometimes an accomplice of cancer. Research shows that in fact, In the development of many major diseases, inflammatory response is a very important link, that is, the formation of many major diseases is often accompanied by changes in inflammation.”

Dr. Liu Bin explained, “When our body’s local organs and tissues are damaged, the body’s own immune cells may be activated and released, so that inflammatory factors are also released, causing a local inflammatory response. It can increase our body’s resistance to pathogens, and can also improve the repair ability of tissue cells. But if inflammation cannot be effectively controlled, repeated attacks, and repeated damage to local tissues, these damaged cells will be damaged. It is possible to become cancerous and form cancer.”

Wang Bojun, chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Ningbo University School of Medicine, pointed out that chronic inflammation is a long-term disease, which can be caused by several It develops gradually over months or years. Some diseases can adversely affect the immune system, resulting in repeated or persistent low-level inflammation in the body, while chronic low-grade inflammation can cause DNA damage that can lead to cancers such as colon, lung, stomach, esophagus, and more.

doctors need to be alert to these types of inflammation: !

1. Hepatitis B – Liver Cancer

Li Xinquan, chief physician of the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, introduced that epidemiologists have long found that in areas where hepatitis B is prevalent, most liver cancers also have a high incidence. Although not all hepatitis B will inevitably evolve into liver cancer, most liver cancer patients are infected with hepatitis B virus, suffer from chronic hepatitis B, and further develop into liver cirrhosis and eventually become liver cancer.

Liu Bin, a radiologist at Luzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan Province, introduced that for hepatitis B, once it is found, it must be actively treated, especially in the acute stage. Hepatitis B patients must take active antiviral treatment to avoid their progression to chronic hepatitis B, because chronic hepatitis B will repeatedly damage liver cells, causing liver cell fibrosis, and then transforming into liver cirrhosis, which will continue to progress and develop into liver cancer. About 80% of liver cancer patients in my country have a history of hepatitis B, which means that most liver cancers are formed by the progression of hepatitis. Therefore, for hepatitis, we must not delay, otherwise it is likely to develop into liver cancer.

2. Atrophic gastritis – gastric cancer

Li Xinquan, chief physician of the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, introduced that it is generally believed that Helicobacter pylori settles into the gastric mucosa after reaching the gastric mucosa through the mouth, causing chronic and superficial gastritis after several weeks or months, and developing into ten years after several years or decades. Diodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer, chronic atrophic gastritis, etc., and chronic atrophic gastritis is the most risk factor for gastric cancer.

Radiologist, Luzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan ProvinceAccording to Liu Bin, the most common cause of atrophic gastritis is Helicobacter pylori infection, which is a high-risk factor for gastric cancer. Therefore, although it cannot be said that suffering from atrophic gastritis will definitely progress to gastric cancer, people with atrophic gastritis do belong to the high-risk group of gastric cancer. Therefore, once atrophic gastritis is found, everyone must actively treat it, especially those who have Helicobacter pylori infection themselves, to prevent atrophic gastritis from continuing to progress and developing into gastric cancer.

Gallery copyright pictures, without authorization

3. Chronic cervicitis – cervical cancer

Cervicitis generally has Acute cervicitis, chronic cervicitis, and cervical cancer have a certain relationship is chronic cervicitis.

Yu Zhuo, Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, introduced that chronic cervicitis is mostly caused by childbirth, miscarriage or surgical damage to the cervix. Infection caused by pathogen invasion, it has a variety of manifestations, such as cervical erosion, cervical hypertrophy, cervical polyps, cervical gland cysts and cervical ectropion. It does not mean that patients with cervicitis will inevitably lead to cervical cancer. If patients with chronic cervicitis are persistently infected by high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), they are prone to cervical cancer lesions. Among them, high-risk human papilloma Viruses refer to HPV16 and HPV18.

4. Ulcerative Colitis – Bowel Cancer< /p>

There are many classifications of enteritis. Liu Bin, a radiologist at Luzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan Province, introduced that first of all, I want to emphasize that not all enteritis will develop into cancer. However, if it is chronic ulcerative colitis, everyone must pay great attention, because studies have shown that patients with ulcerative colitis have a significantly higher risk of developing malignant tumors.

Many ulcerative colitis patients do not pay enough attention to their disease, and often take medicines intermittently without Regular treatment can only cure the symptoms but not the root cause, leading to repeated episodes of inflammation, which in turn induces canceration. Therefore, for ulcerative colitis, we must pay enough attention to regular treatment.

5. Chronic Pancreatitis – Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatitis is also a very common disease, and many people know that acute pancreatitis is painful. Liu Bin, a radiologist at Luzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Sichuan Province, said that many people do not know that if pancreatitis is not properly treated and prevented, chronic pancreatitis will form. The risk of developing pancreatic cancer is then significantly increased. Therefore, if you find pancreatitis, you must actively treat it, and take preventive measures in your daily life to prevent recurrent pancreatitis.

Finally, in fact, many cancers in our body are not formed all at once, often before the occurrence of cancer, there will be a stage of precancerous lesions Therefore, we must pay attention to active treatment to avoid its further development, thereby reducing the incidence of various cancers.

Source: Health Times (ID: jksb2013)

This article has been authorized Please contact the original author

The cover of this article and the watermarked pictures in the text are from the copyright gallery, and reprinting is not authorized

< span>Support us please Share Comments, likes and watching ☟

Public ID: Science_China

Public Science Communication

The official WeChat national popular science platform of China Association for Science and Technology

Long press to identify the QR code on the left, follow me We