Eight Signs of Cancer

"A team of scientists say they've identified the top warning signs of cancer -- which could help catch the disease before it spreads.The eight symptoms they've pinpointed can accurately predict the risk of various cancers in specific age groups. Researchers are  so confident of the findings, published in the British Journal of General Practice, that they advise seeing a specialist immediately unless there's another good explanation for the problem.
-- Breast lump (possible symptom of breast cancer)

-- Rectal bleeding (indicative of colon cancer, especially in older people)

-- Blood in the urine (a sign of urology-related cancers)

-- Coughing up blood (possible symptom of lung cancer)

-- Difficulty swallowing (a symptom of cancer of the esophagus)

-- Anemia and iron deficiency (possible sign of colon cancer)

-- Bleeding after menopause (possible symptom of cancers of the female reproductive organs)

-- Rectal exam showing signs of cancerous cells (potential symptom of prostate cancer)

The researchers say having a doctor diagnose the significance of those eight symptoms as soon as they're noticed has the potential to increase the number of cancer cases caught early. That, in turn, can dramatically improve a patient's chances of survival.
The focus is more on common cancers and looking for symptoms a doctor hasn't already detected (like anemia or an abnormal rectal exam) and general warning signs of multiple kinds of cancer, like unexplained weight loss and a sudden loss of appetite.
"We recommend research and development of general practice computer systems to produce effective warning flags when the symptoms, signs or test results with a risk of 5 percent or more ... are entered for patients within the specified sex and age groups," it was noted in the study.
Dr. Kevin Barraclough, another U.K. general practitioner, wrote in an editorial published with the study that some of the symptoms would more likely mean cancer in certain age and gender groups than in others. Anemia, for instance, probably isn't a sign of bowel cancer in a 21-year-old woman but may be in a 60-year-old man.
And cancer can be difficult to detect because there are more than 200 different types and it produces a host of symptoms; ''So if you notice an unusual or persistent change in your body, it's important to get it checked out.''

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