Signs and symptoms of a disease are some of the most confusing points in the disease cycle of a patient. Why? Because signs and symptoms could mean anything, they can be symbolic of any disease without necessarily meaning one in particular. Often time’s patients use these signs and symptoms to self-diagnose leading to the treatment of the wrong disease therefore giving room to the real problem to expand and probably reach a critical condition. Do not be that patient. Let the signs and symptoms be the reason why you visit the doctor today.

Maybe, you have found a rare spot your skin, you feel agonising constant abdominal pains, everyday diarrhoea and headache, pain while urinating also you may have felt a suspicious lamp in your breast among other things that feel a bit odd. Any of these scenarios can be scary and will most definitely put you over the edge. What you don’t consider when setting out on the un-endless journey of panic and fear is that these symptoms could mean that you either have cancer or in some cases your symptoms can mean anything but Cancer.

There are a number of cancers that may have similar symptoms like other diseases and this article will highlight just a few. In the long run, at the end of the day, you will decide if any of us are free from cancer screening.

Let us take a look at Lung cancer. Very many conditions such as cough, diarrhoea, food poisoning, mumps, influenza, bronchitis, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, Asthma, congestive heart failure, hypertension and just little allergies like wheezing can be symptoms of lung cancer. Each of these conditions are things we face and see every day maybe because of the drastic weather conditions or the maybe the condition is just what it is.  How can you prove differentiate all these conditions from lung cancer?

Did you know that many women confuse breast infections for inflammatory breast cancer and yet some are treating breast infections yet they should be actually getting cancer treatment? According to Health control, breast infections include locational mastitis this is mainly when bacteria gets into the milk ducts when a woman is breast feeding. The ducts might become blocked causing the bacteria to multiply causing an infection that might appear as a red area on the infected breast. Another breast infection is subareolar abscess. For this kind of infection, an abscess forms behind the nipple and may need draining. The red swollen area will be in the areola area and therefore not spread across the breast. These abscesses can be a complication of mastitis. These infections can recur about 40% of the time especially in women who smoke.

Other forms of skin issues like fungal infections and rashes, swellings and breast changes should be the first warning signs that you need to visit your doctor in order to have lung cancer, breast cancer or skin cancer ruled out.

According to Norwalk Hospital in the United States, most findings that show up on mammograms are benign to mean not cancer and some of these findings are fibrocystic changes which cause breast lumpiness, breast yeasts and tumours called fibroadenomas. It is only after a mammogram that your doctor can confirm that a mass or a lesion is benign. Often times other tests may follow such as a breast ultrasound, a breast MRI or a biopsy. A biopsy allows the doctor to go the extra mile by taking a sample tissue from your body for further examination.

Here is the tricky part though and one of the reasons as to why we cannot afford to take cancer screening for granted. Research has shown that some benign masses can still raise the risk of cancer and in this case surgery will be required to remove them completely. For breast cancer some of these that may require surgery include lobular carcinoma in situ in which abnormal cells are found in the milk producing areas of the breast and atypical hyperplasia in which breast cells are abnormal and increased in number. All in all, mammography is an important tool for detecting breast5 cancer early on when it is easiest to treat. The American Cancer Society recommends a mammogram yearly for all women ages 45 to 54 and every other year for women ages 55 and older.

Lymphoma news today reported that “about one in every 2000 people worldwide suffer from benign lymphomas and they are rarely life threatening.” This means that watchful waiting maybe a treatment option when there is a mutual feeling between doctor and patient that the condition may not be severe. The problems start when the swollen lymph nodes start to press on the tissue and in more severe cases benign lymphomas may develop into malignant lymphoma. This is why it is advised to treat the benign lymphoma rather than sit back and keep tempting fate and bad luck.

Here is the bad news and also good news depending on the circumstances and context; Benign and malignant lymphomas share the same symptoms. This stark similarity makes them difficult to diagnose correctly as the first symptom often is a generally painless swollen lymph nodes in the neck, chest or abdomen. Other symptoms may include night sweats, fever, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, lack of energy or fatigue, rashes and lower back pain. With these confusing symptoms, doctors often conduct a series of exams to confirm the diagnosis to ensure that the lymphoma is benign or malignant. These exams include but are not limited to a complete physical exam, a biopsy, blood and imaging tests.

Going for cancer screening can either be an individual choice or one can just wait until their condition is too critical that way, they will be carried to the hospital. There is no right way or wrong way of doing things however, in the medical field there are no grey lines and people should adopt the culture of not drawing such deceptive grey lines in their minds. There is no luck or chances; one can either know or not know but it is always better to know for better planning and high chances of success. Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

Written by Kizito Angella.