In the morning of January 16, 2020, Zhao Fang, the son of Zhao Zhongxiang, released the news of Zhao Zhongxiang's death on Zhao Zhongxiang's personal social media. Zhao Fang said that his father Zhao Zhongxiang was found to be suffering from cancer at the end of 2019, which had spread, and after treatment, he passed away at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2020, in Beijing at the age of 78 years old.
According to a post by Zhao Zhongxiang's son, Zhao Zhongxiang only felt unwell at the end of 2019, sought medical checkups, was found to be suffering from cancer, which had already spread, and passed away untreated after just over 2 months. Why is it that many people die as soon as they are diagnosed with terminal cancer, or just diagnosed with cancer, not more than a few months later?
Early cancer signals are not obvious, and people often ignore them
Cancer originates from one's own cells, and because it can escape the attack of the immune system, it does not form a violent reaction in the body at the early stage, or even has no reaction at all, and it just "quietly" erodes the healthy cells around it. Therefore, most cancers do not have obvious signs in the early stage, and even less pain, which will not cause patients to pay attention to it. For example, the symptoms of breast cancer and breast hyperplasia are very similar, both of them have swelling when touching the breast, and many people think that it is breast hyperplasia and paralyzed; rectal cancer is mistaken as hemorrhoids, stomach cancer is mistaken as gastritis, lung cancer is mistaken as pneumonia or asthma, etc., and most of them are in the advanced stage when the symptoms are obvious and the diagnosis of cancer is made.
In addition, some people have always been in good health, rarely go to the hospital, and even have the mentality of "avoiding medical treatment", but it is easier to ignore the early signs of cancer. Therefore, we need to know more about cancer in our daily life and do regular screening for early detection of cancer.
Missed and misdiagnosed by medical institutions
At present, the early diagnosis of cancer is almost dependent on highly sophisticated imaging tests, and accurate judgment of the results also requires well-trained and sufficient clinical experience. China's medical diagnosis and treatment system is still not perfect, the level of medical technicians varies, especially in rural and grass-roots medical institutions lack of medical equipment, when the patient has some cancer-related symptoms, often easy to be misdiagnosed as a common disease, this omission and delayed diagnosis caused a lot of patients once the diagnosis is late.
Over-reliance on health checkups
Nowadays, both individuals and companies are paying more and more attention to health checkups, but in fact, most of the health checkup packages are only for some common diseases, such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes screening, and cannot detect many cancers, and the fact that there is no abnormality in the health checkups and that no cancers have been detected doesn't mean that you can rest assured.
For example, it is difficult to detect early lung cancer with just an X-ray chest X-ray, and CT is a more reliable test, but many people, especially those at high risk, have neglected this program due to its high price and limitations in technology and equipment.
Another example is the testing of tumor markers. If it is positive, it may draw attention to it and go for further examination. But if it's negative, it doesn't confirm the absence of a tumor, and inevitably there will be those who miss it.
So it's hard to detect tumors with a simple physical exam, which is often why people are diagnosed with advanced cancer shortly after, despite normal physical exam results.
So why do so many people die soon after being diagnosed with cancer?
Discovered late
No matter what kind of cancer it is, when it is diagnosed at an advanced stage, there is no chance of a cure for most of them.
Most patients with terminal tumors and extensive metastases have a survival period of only about six months. For example, the five-year survival rate for widely metastasized stomach cancer is no more than 10 percent.
Even if there is no extensive metastasis in the examination, it is only at the naked eye level. In fact, when the tumor grows to a certain level, it will start "micro-metastasis" and sow "seeds" in other places of the body. Once the original cancer is removed, it will take advantage of the body's weakness to "sprout" and become metastatic cancer.
Tumors with high malignancy
Pancreatic cancer, small-cell lung cancer, liver cancer, gallbladder cancer, etc. are mostly of high malignancy, which are not effective in radiotherapy and targeted therapy. Even if they are just detected, they can't be treated again due to the rapid development.
Death from tumor emergencies
Some tumor emergencies can endanger patients' lives in a short time.
For example, tumor rupture, causing hemorrhage; hemoptysis in lung cancer patients, which can block the airway and be fatal within minutes; tumors such as stomach and intestinal cancers, which cause perforation of gastrointestinal tract; and tumor patients who are at high risk of thrombosis, which is life-threatening when the thrombus blocks the pulmonary artery and causes pulmonary embolism.
Other reasons
Cancer occurs in middle-aged and old people, and elderly patients may combine some other diseases, such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, etc., which can be fatal easily.
In addition, surgery or radiotherapy is a big blow to the body, the so-called kill the enemy 10,000 self-loss of 8,000, the patient may die from the complications of treatment.
In short, if cancer is not detected and treated early, the overall treatment effect is unsatisfactory. Therefore, we must adhere to a healthy lifestyle, exercise more, eat regularly and healthily, and combine work and rest in order to prevent cancer as much as possible, and insist on regular medical checkups, and people with a family history of tumors should increase their relevant cancer tests.
Mr. Zhao is on his way!