Understanding Cancer

Here are some important symptoms to follow up with your physician:

• Any changes in bowel habits. If you've always had normal bowel movements but suddenly develop constipation that continues for two weeks or more, especially if it's accompanied by intermittent attacks of diarrhea. Cancer of the bowel often presents itself in this way. Blood in the stool, even if attributed it to hemorrhoids, should also be checked out because hemorrhoids can coexist with more serious colon problems. Finally, if normally bulky stool has become thin and ribbonlike, the reduced caliber may be due to a growth that's narrowing a portion of the colon.
• An open sore or a persistent rash that does not clear up may reflect skin cancer.
• Blood or discharge from any body orifice—vomited, coughed up, in the urine, from the vagina, or in the stool.
• Any persistent bump or lump anywhere you find it—in the breast, on the skin, in the testicle, under the arms, neck, groin, or abdomen.
• Pain in the stomach, either when you're hungry or after eating, indigestion, or difficulty swallowing.
• A chronic, nagging cough, with or without sputum and especially (but not necessarily) accompanied by any amount of blood, however small, is a sign—especially in smokers. So is persistent hoarseness.
• A low-grade fever without an obvious cause (doctors called it FUO—fever of unknown origin) that continues for longer than a week or two warrants a visit to your doctor. It may be due to something as innocuous as an infection behind a tooth, but it may also reflect a serious process such as a diseased heart valve, an abscess somewhere in the body—or a hidden malignancy.
• Weight loss for no apparent reason. The problem may be due to a medication, an overactive thyroid, an undiagnosed infection—or, again, a hidden cancer.

Do not ignore any of these warning signs simply because they are not causing you any pain—at the moment. Cancers often don't hurt in the early stages.

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