What should you do next once diagnosed with cancer?

What should you do next once diagnosed with cancer? Cancer can affect anyone’s life. Please obtain as much information as possible before choosing the most suitable treatment for a patient’s specific condition. It is very important to talk to your doctor and get the correct diagnosis and treatment. This will help prolong your life and treat cancer properly.

Cancer is a very serious disease, which is why many people are eager to know what to do next once they are diagnosed with this deadly disease .

*Malignant tumors that occur on the epithelium are called carcinomas, and malignant tumors that occur on the mesenchyme are called sarcomas.

Cancer can change a person’s life, and may cause anxiety and depression, but also affect the individual’s work and life.

Fortunately, with the advancement of science and technology, there are now many ways to detect cancer early, such as gastrointestinal endoscopy, liquid biopsy, etc., thereby increasing the chance of survival. Cancer is a terrible disease, but some early screening or early diagnosis products can help early detection and traceability of cancer, thus making cancer treatment more effective, simpler and cheaper.

Once diagnosed with cancer, what should I do next? It is best to take the following actions so that you can “easily ” control your symptoms and fight cancer:

① Go to a regular medical institution for treatment, if possible, the specialist will be preferred

After being diagnosed with cancer, patients should choose regular medical institutions for diagnosis and treatment, and those with conditions should choose standard cancer hospitals or general hospitals for diagnosis and treatment. In actual life, in order to hide the condition of the patient, some family members dragged acquaintances and friends and chose non-standard institutions. The patients did not receive standardized treatment. Finally, when they came to the doctor, the doctor could only sigh and could not help.

② Correctly choose the treatment department

The specialized divisions of cancer hospitals are very detailed. Patients can first choose the corresponding professional doctors according to the primary tumor site. Outpatient doctors will transfer to corresponding departments such as internal medicine, surgery, radiotherapy, etc. according to the tumor type, stage and general condition of the patient. treatment. For patients with advanced tumors with distant metastasis, the appropriate department should be selected based on the original site rather than the metastatic site.

③ Consult a doctor

As mentioned above, cancer is a terrible disease, and a professional doctor is required to explain what may happen to the body and the symptoms that may be encountered after cancer.

Consultation with a doctor is essential, because TA allows patients to view cancer from a broader perspective and prepare for the next thing. The more a patient knows about his condition, the more likely he is to get a suitable treatment plan.

In addition, doctors can also provide possible treatment options for the cancer that the patient has. When cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, there are usually more treatment options to choose from. However, when choosing a cancer treatment option, be sure to consult your doctor about the risks and benefits of each treatment option, and the recovery opportunities of each treatment option. At the same time, different treatment plans may have different side effects. Knowing this information will make it easier for patients to choose a treatment plan that suits their needs and budget.

Finally, patients need to have realistic expectations of their doctors. Many patients often consult many doctors and get many different opinions. What is appropriate? The correct way is to ask clearly and follow one.

Tumor is a complex chronic disease. Treatment and follow-up are long-term behaviors. In the end, you can only “no one can control or want to control”. The advice given by different doctors may be different. Patients can consult hospitals and doctors with rich experience in standard treatment, listen to the second diagnosis and treatment opinions reasonably, and then choose a trusted doctor, try to “finish from one to the end”, which is also beneficial to the doctor Better grasp the patient’s condition and treatment process.

④ Explore the treatment plan, don’t listen to the folk prescription

Don’t be deceived by some fancy treatments and delay treatment. Except for the three major treatments of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, other treatments have strict indications. Consult a professional doctor instead of blindly following.

Many patients will also ask about TCM treatment. It is necessary to know that TCM is not non-toxic and harmless. It should be treated in a qualified and regular TCM hospital and TCM department. It is not believed that small advertisements and folk prescriptions, inappropriate TCM and Western medicine may cause Serious injury.

After being diagnosed with cancer, patients can choose the following treatment options:

Radiotherapy: Many people choose chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy so they can speed up their recovery time. Radiotherapy generally takes several months, because it takes a while for cancer cells to respond to this treatment;

Chemotherapy: This is the main therapy used by doctors to treat cancer, but pay attention to its toxic and side effects, because chemotherapy drugs kill tumor cells while also killing some normal cells, causing many patients to have adverse reactions after chemotherapy ；

Surgery: If the doctor suggests, this is another option. Some surgeries are usually combined with other treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The type of surgery a patient receives depends on what kind of cancer the patient has and how advanced the cancer is;

Targeting: anticancer drugs targeting specific sites with different tumor ( target ) as occurs with so kill tumor cells, but little effect on normal tissue, is the best treatment modality. However, for drugs with a clear gene target, the principle that they can be used after the target gene detection must be followed. Especially for drugs with companion diagnostic products, it is recommended to use NMPA-approved companion diagnostic products for testing, and do not blindly use drugs without relevant inspections;

Immunity: It is a therapy that targets the human immune system instead of directly targeting tumors. It stimulates or modulates the body’s immune system to enhance the anti-tumor immunity of the tumor microenvironment, thereby controlling and killing tumor cells. In recent years, emerging immune drugs include PD-1 antibody, PD-L1 antibody, CTLA-4 antibody and so on.

Immunotherapy biomarkers can help patients develop more personalized treatments by identifying patients who may respond to specific immunotherapy. Currently commonly used clinical immunotherapy biomarkers include PD-L1, MSI-H/dMMR, TMB, etc. (Some immunotherapy resistant and super-progressive genes are often recommended for testing). The onset of immunotherapy is not very fast, usually it takes 1 to 2 months to see the effect.

Participating in clinical trials: Participating in clinical trials of new drugs is not a mouse. There is a big difference between human trials and animal trials. Clinical trials have a very strict review, access, and power guarantee system, and the conditions must be met before entering the trial. Hospitals or organizations that conduct clinical trials must have nationally recognized qualifications; treatment methods in clinical trials are also approved by relevant management departments at all levels.

⑤ Strong combination, MD T or MTB

If the condition of cancer patients is more complicated, it may be necessary to consider the Multidisciplinary Comprehensive Treatment Model ( MDT ). Doctors from multiple disciplines discuss together and work out the most optimal treatment plan for the patient.

If cancer patients have undergone NGS genetic testing, traditional MDT may not be able to meet the needs. At this time, it may be necessary to use the Molecular Tumor Expert Committee ( MTB ), where doctors from multiple disciplines, molecular biology experts and bioinformatics experts discuss molecular biology Relevant evidence, optimizing the patient’s individualized diagnosis and treatment plan, and establishing a clinical treatment path based on molecular marker detection may be a better solution.

If conditions permit, medical treatment overseas is also an option.

⑥ Regular review

Patients who are regularly followed up rarely experience complications from cancer treatment. They have more opportunities to avoid complications because they can monitor their health. Therefore, after cancer treatment, it is important to follow up regularly for several months to ensure that the treatment is effective and that the cancer has not grown or become too rampant.

In addition, patients can also consult their doctors whether they need full-body imaging or other types of tests, such as liquid biopsy ( CTC or ctDNA testing ), so that they can learn more about their cancer as soon as possible.

After cancer is diagnosed, taking care of yourself may be the most important task, and it is also the most overlooked thing. Diagnosed with cancer after the disease, the patient will become the first for their own care, they should give themselves to develop care plans, such as many sports, taking a short walk, or even simple stretching exercises can; secondly, to maintain a positive attitude is very important , It’s more important to be able to express your emotions, even negative emotions; again, you need to learn to rely on the support of others, family and friends can save lives; finally, if you are depressed or anxious, you can consider mental health Talking with experts, psychotherapy can also help reduce the pressure of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Sum up

Cancer can affect anyone’s life. Before selecting the most appropriate treatment for patients with specific conditions, please as far as possible for more and more information. It is very important to talk to your doctor and get the correct diagnosis and treatment. This will help prolong your life and treat cancer properly.

In addition, the earlier the cancer is diagnosed, the more likely it is to be cured (the greater the chance of stopping the cancer from getting worse ).

(source:internet, reference only)

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