Cancer can be a devastating disease that comes out of nowhere. Those diagnosed often notice few symptoms, and they feel fine when they’re blindsided with a diagnosis. Signs and symptoms of cancer can be very small and easy to miss.
Recognizing these 10 signs that cancer may be growing in your body can be vital to catching it early and saving your life.
1.A lump beneath the skin
Lumps in breast tissue are often first discovered by women and men who perform self-exams and feel their breast tissue regularly. Touching your own body and getting to know its usual feeling is a good way to be able to distinguish when you have a change.
Get comfortable with touching yourself regularly, especially on the breast, testicle, armpit, throat, abdomen, and skin. Self-examination of these soft tissues should help to discover changes before they develop into larger tumors.
2.Itchy skin
The body treats cancer as a bacteria. The immune system fights it by using white blood cells to attempt to destroy it. This increases blood flow in the area of cancerous growth, causing the area to feel warm, appear red, change color, feel tight or itch.
3.Wounds that don’t heal
If you have a cut or other injury to the surface of your skin and it is taking a long time to heal or you notice little progress, it is a sign that cancer may be growing in your body.
Your immune system has to prioritize defense zones and cancer takes priority for all available bodily resources way before your minor wound. Take excellent care to keep the wound clean, and consider getting blood screening done just to be cautious.
4.Bumps on the mouth or tongue
Bumps inside the mouth, gums or throat, especially whitish colored bumps should be a cause for concern.
5.Trouble swallowing or loss of appetite
Anything that significantly disrupts your digestive process is cause for concern because it hurts your body’s ability to get nutrition from the food that you eat. As a result, bodily functions, like healing, suffer.
6.Changes in bowel movements
Anything that seems different from your usual stool and that lasts for more than 2 days should begin to be a cause for concern. For example, finding blood in your stools is something that most people know is a sign of colon cancer and that they should seek the help of a medical professional immediately for evaluation.
Other changes you might look for according to the American Cancer Society would include pain during elimination, very dark colored stool, lighter color, constipation or diarrhea, or mucus. Seek the examination and diagnosis of a trusted medical professional.
7.Changes in urination
Similarly to normal bowel functioning, your bladder function should be fairly regular. Changes in the strength of your urine flow, color, smell, the presence of foam, or especially noticeable blood should be checked immediately for cancer growing in your body.
8.Bleeding
Unexplained bleeding that cannot be accounted for by a menstrual cycle should be checked quickly. Blood from the uterus, nipple, or in any bodily excretions should be examined.
9.Changes in voice
Cancer of the larynx can cause your voice to change pitch and tone. Changes in your voice are a sign that cancer may be growing in your body.
10.Coughing
Cancer may be growing inside your body in your lung, esophagus, throat and even stomach if you are experiencing coughing that is persistent and not a result of another illness.