Annual physical examination, why still have cancer?

In our daily life, we can often hear, "My wife is usually in good health, and she never takes injections or medicines. Why is she diagnosed with advanced cancer? The unit also performs physical examinations every year, which is really unacceptable to us"; "Just had a physical examination last month, B ultra-examination is normal, why is the tumor unresectable now?" Indeed. We can't help but think about it for a second. Nowadays, physical examination has become an employee benefit of most employers. However, why "every year the physical examination is normal, and there is still cancer, and most of them are in the middle and late stages when they are found?"

Misunderstanding of physical examination

Cancer prevention is a hierarchical system:

Primary prevention is to develop a healthy lifestyle, avoid high-risk carcinogenic factors, improve cancer awareness, "prevention of cancer before it occurs," so cancer prevention can not only rely on annual 1-2 routine physical examination, or you will step into the first mistake. "Usually never injection, take medicine," then you usually have a healthy lifestyle? Two packs of cigarettes a day, a bottle of wine, long-term bad habits will continue to accumulate cancer risk, so develop good habits is essential.

Secondary prevention is early detection, early diagnosis and treatment, "prevention of cancer in the beginning," in this stage, screening physical examination plays an important role. Physical examination is not a formality, should be standardized and have medical qualification units undertake, need experienced physical examination or clinicians responsible for physical examination, Need to have blood biochemical testing equipment (not just finger stick to do artificial blood smear), the necessary diagnostic equipment, such as X-ray machine (molybdenum target), B-ultrasound, CT, etc. The second misunderstanding is that physical examination is "take a form," the physical examination lacks comprehensive non-standard.

The third misunderstanding is due to personal factors, afraid of physical examination, that as long as a blood pressure measurement, do an electrocardiogram on the line, fear of blood, rectal examination (do have discomfort, but there is value in rectal lesions).

The last myth is that there is too much reliance on physical examination. Physical examination cannot replace hospital visits. It is just a screening process. When suspicious symptoms are found, it is necessary to go to a regular hospital for a detailed examination, and the physical examination should be combined with the subjective symptoms of discomfort. Although everything is normal, it does have "stomach," "abdomen" and other discomfort. Still have to go to the hospital to check, some diseases, physical examination can not be detected, such as pancreatic cancer, because of its deep anatomical location, conventional B-ultrasound often can not find lesions, need thin layer CT examination.

In 2018, the National Cancer Center released the latest cancer data in China. The report shows that there were 3.804 million new cases of malignant tumors in the country in 2018. On average, 7 people were diagnosed with cancer every minute, and the probability of cancer among people under 40 years old increased significantly. until the age of 85. A person's risk of developing cancer is 36%, of which lung cancer is the disease with the highest morbidity and mortality.

Cancer has become the biggest factor depriving human life. Everyone is not sure that they will never have cancer. The only thing we can do is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and regular cancer screening to minimize their risk.