Nowadays, cancer is a disease with an increasing incidence due to many different causes. Regular health check-ups can promptly detect diseases and treat them more effectively. Below are some common cancers and useful information that everyone should know.

1. What is cancer?

Cancer can appear anywhere in the body’s 1000 cells. Normally, cells will grow and divide to create new cells, which is the way humans grow and develop. According to the law, old cells will age or be damaged and gradually replaced by new cells.

When the body is sick, this natural process will be broken. The body’s cells become abnormal, specifically, old cells will not die but continue to grow and form new cells. Like that, they grow uncontrollably and create an abnormal mass called a tumor.

Malignant tumors can invade surrounding areas of the body.

These tumors are malignant in nature, meaning they can invade and spread to surrounding areas. During their development, they can move to other organs in the body through the circulatory system or the lymphatic system and form new tumors separate from the original tumor, called metastasis.

However, there are also benign tumors, meaning they do not have the ability to invade but they are quite large in size. When surgically removed, benign tumors usually do not recur, malignant tumors are prone to recur. However, not all benign tumors are harmless, for example, brain tumors can be life-threatening.

2. Common types of cancer

2.1. Non-melanoma skin cancer

This is the most common form, including basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. According to statistics in the US, more than 1 million citizens have non-melanoma skin cancer.

This disease often appears on the head, face, neck and trunk with the following symptoms:

• Lesions that are ulcerative on the skin are difficult to heal and often recur many times.
• Red patches that are itchy, scaly and have raised bumps on the skin surface.
• Flat patches of skin with an abnormal complexion that look like scars.
• There are many small blood vessels at the base of the damaged skin patches.
• Clinical signs of this form include:
• Red patches with scales and unclear edges.
• The damaged skin bleeds easily and is difficult to heal.
• Small tumors that cause itching, irritation and pain.

2.2. Breast Cancer

This is a common disease in women and the estimated number of patients in the US is about 266,120 cases.

Breast cancer is a fairly common disease in women.

Warning signs of breast tumors include:

• Lumps in the breast, armpit or collarbone, painless or only slightly swollen.
• Breasts that are orange in color: thick, swollen and easily irritated.
• Feeling of tightness in both breasts.
• Pain in the breasts or nipples.
• Abnormal discharge from the nipples.
• Nipple retraction.

These are not signs that help diagnose the disease, but they are warning signs that your health is having problems, so go to a specialized medical facility for examination quickly.

2.3 Lung cancer

Tumors in the lungs often do not show clinical symptoms until the late stages. The number of nerve endings in the lungs is quite small, so the tumor often grows silently without the patient feeling anything. Some warning signs of a tumor in the lungs include:

• Prolonged cough that becomes increasingly severe.
• Coughing up blood.
• Chest pain.
• Bone pain.
• Changes in voice.
• Difficulty breathing or wheezing.
• Pneumonia and bronchitis often recur many times.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Headache.

2.4 Colon cancer

This is a common disease with tumors in the digestive tract. According to recorded data in the US, there were about 140,250 patients with the disease in 2018.

Some signs to help you recognize the disease include:

• Weight loss.
• Fatigue, weakness.
• Digestive disorders such as constipation, diarrhea, passing small, fibrous stools for many days.
• Dull abdominal pain for a few days.
• Blooding, indigestion.

Bloating and prolonged indigestion are warning signs that your digestive tract has a tumor.

• Bloody stools.
• Rectal bleeding.

The disease only shows clinical signs in the late stages. The symptoms of this disease are not specific and are easily confused with other diseases, such as hemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome.

2.5 Stomach cancer

This is also a common disease with tumors in the digestive system, accounting for 9% of all cancer patients. Some warning signs of the disease include:

• Loss of appetite.
• Bloody stools or black stools.
• Body fatigue, fatigue.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Indigestion.
• Pain in the epigastrium and left lower ribs.

3. Psychological support for patients

Diagnosing cancer can be a big shock for patients. Accepting that they have the disease and living with it for the rest of their lives is not an easy challenge. Supporting them psychologically is extremely important and has an impact on the progression of the disease:

3.1. Talking

This is a necessary thing that relatives should do with patients. Talk, confide, and share with them because they have a pessimistic, closed and desperate mentality. Relatives should learn to talk, listen, sympathize and understand them to help them regain their spirit. Pay special attention to them when they show signs of wanting to commit suicide and inform the family so that everyone is vigilant.

Talking is necessary to help support the patient psychologically.

3.2. Support them to participate in many activities

Create conditions and support patients to participate in all their favorite activities even though their health is not good. This will help patients maintain their connection with society and make them feel that their life is still as good as before.

3.3. Recognize abnormal signs of patients

Patients can experience many different psychological developments such as sadness, anxiety, despair, anger, etc. Therefore, when you see signs of instability in the patient, seek help from a psychologist or doctor to promptly intervene and stabilize the patient’s spirit. In particular, relatives need to maintain a stable mentality so as not to affect the patient.

3.4. Accept the patient’s difficulties

Patients will be limited in many ways, for example, emotionally, they are easily irritable and angry, which can make relatives sad and angry. Or due to the effects of chemotherapy, they no longer have an appetite and can hurt the person preparing the meal. So please sympathize and understand them.

Try to accept the difficulties the patient is going through to help them fight the tumor.

Cancer is a huge obsession for human health. Therefore, go for regular cancer screening to promptly detect and treat for maximum effectiveness. Especially, if there is a relative in the family who has the disease, try to take good care of them, especially psychologically to help them be mentally strong to treat the disease.