So horrible! Coughing for 3 months turned out to be lung cancer

After coughing for three months without any improvement, 16-year-old high school girl Chen finally couldn't stand it anymore and went to the hospital for a check-up.

But the result surprised everyone - there was a 2-centimeter tumor on her right lung. Lung cancer usually only occurs in middle-aged people, so why did it happen to a young girl who didn't smoke?

1The incurable cough is actually the "cry" of a serious disease

"She was a pretty high school student, carrying a backpack." Zhu Li, chief physician of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, said that the girl was over 1.6 meters tall and at first glance, it was impossible to tell that she was suffering from a serious illness. Just by looking at the chest X-ray brought by his mother, Zhu Lixin felt relieved. With years of experience, he had already reached a preliminary conclusion.

"Why is the child's cough so difficult to treat?" Chen's mother asked anxiously, "Is it tuberculosis or something? The county doctor is also weird. It's a cough, not a respiratory disease, so why did he ask us to see you?"

The mother said that Chen's cough has lasted for more than 20 days. It is a dry cough, without sputum, runny nose or fever. From childhood to adulthood, everyone has had minor illnesses and disasters. Both mother and classmate Chen think so. They would never have dreamed that the incurable cough was actually the "cry of" disease.

I went to the drugstore to buy some cold medicine and cough suppressant, but they had no effect. He kept coughing and coughing, which was not the right thing to do. His mother took some time out to take Chen to the local hospital. After taking a chest X-ray, the doctor's face suddenly turned pale and he asked the mother to take her daughter to the provincial capital as soon as possible. He recommended Zhu Li, chief physician of the cardiothoracic surgery department of Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital.

The CT scan showed that Chen had a 2-centimeter-large mass in the upper lobe of his right lung. It was very clear that it was lung cancer!

"Many years ago, lung cancer was a disease that only occurred in people over 60 years old. In recent years, it has become a consensus among doctors that lung cancer is becoming younger. We have encountered patients aged 25-26 before, but she is a teenager! This is the youngest lung cancer patient I have encountered in my 34 years of medical practice." Zhu Li said with a heavy heart.

Surgery was arranged immediately, and the pathology report confirmed that it was lung cancer. The operation went smoothly. Fortunately, there was no lymph node metastasis. Student Chen recovered well after the operation.

2 In such an environment, many people will encounter

How can a 16-year-old get lung cancer? "Strictly speaking, the cause of lung cancer is still not very clear, but there are influencing factors. After learning about Chen's living environment in detail, we found some pathogenic factors," said Zhu Li.

Chen's family lives in a small town in central Zhejiang. They opened a restaurant on the side of the road, a small shop with only a few tables. Diners order a bowl of noodles, a few stir-fried dishes, and smoke a cigarette, and they fill their stomachs in ten to twenty minutes; outside the restaurant, cars speed by, raising dust.

Student Chen does his homework in the store almost every day after school, and occasionally helps to carry plates and wash bowls when it is busy. The smell of fried dishes and smoke filled the air, and the car exhaust and dust blew into the store, making people's throats itchy and unable to help coughing.

Cooking fumes, second-hand smoke, car exhaust... the combination of multiple harmful factors slowly seeped into Chen's tender body over time, invading her from quantitative change to qualitative change, and eventually brought her to the gate of hell.

Zhu Li admitted that, in fact, many people will encounter such living and working environment. It’s just that people are unaware of the harm, or they know the harm but can do nothing about it, such as breathing secondhand smoke. Data show that the incidence of lung cancer is currently showing a clear trend of becoming younger and more feminine, and many young women who do not smoke are also at risk of developing the disease. In addition to the same pathogenic factors, some experts believe that it may be related to estrogen levels: the higher the estrogen level, the higher the chance of disease.

For lung cancer, once you find a shadow in the lungs, don't let it go easily. Even young people must be vigilant. If respiratory symptoms such as cough and chest tightness occur, patients can first go to the internal medicine department for examination and treatment. After regular anti-inflammatory or anti-tuberculosis treatment, check again after 3 weeks to see if the shadow has shrunk. You should go to the surgery department for examination as soon as possible. Even if the cough symptoms improve slightly after medical treatment, you should not lose vigilance! Don't think it's a simple cold.

It is recommended to have a chest X-ray or a low-dose chest CT scan once a year for early detection and early treatment.