Breast Cancer Stethoscope

A symptom is an indication of disease, illness, injury, or that something is wrong with the body. Symptoms are felt or noticed by a person, but can not easily be noticed by someone else. For example, chills, weakness, aches, shortness of breath, cough, and may be symptoms of pneumonia. A sign is also an indication that something is wrong in the body. But signs are defined as things that can be seen by a doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional. Fever, rapid breathing rate, and abnormal breathing sounds heard through a stethoscope may be signs of pneumonia.

Having one symptom or sign may not give enough information to propose a cause. For example, a rash in a child could be a symptom of a number of things including poison ivy, an infectious disease like measles, an infection limited to skin, or a food allergy. But if the rash is seen with other signs and symptoms include high fever, chills, body aches and sore throat, then a doctor can get a better picture of the disease. In many cases, a patient's signs and symptoms do not give enough clues by themselves for the doctor to determine the cause of a disease. Then medical tests, like X-rays, blood tests or biopsies may be necessary.

Cancer is a group of diseases that can cause almost any symptom or sign. Signs and symptoms depend on where the cancer is, the size of the cancer and how it affects the nearby organs or structures. If cancer spreads (metastasis), then the symptoms can appear in different parts of the body. As cancer develops, it begins to grow on the surrounding organs, blood vessels and nerves. This pressure creates some of the signs and symptoms of cancer. If the cancer is in one critical area, such as parts of the brain, even the smallest tumor can cause symptoms at first.

But sometimes, cancers start in places where it does not cause symptoms until the cancer has grown quite large. cancers of the pancreas, for example, usually do not grow large enough to be felt outside the body. Some pancreatic cancers do not cause symptoms until they begin to grow around nearby nerves (this causes a backache). Others grow around the bile duct, which blocks the flow of bile and leads to a yellowing of the skin known as jaundice. By the time a pancreatic cancer causes these signs or symptoms, it has often reached an advanced stage.

A cancer may also cause symptoms such as fever, fatigue and weight loss. This may be because cancer cells use a large part of the body's energy supply or release substances that alter the body's metabolism. Or the cancer may cause the immune system to react to produce these symptoms. Sometimes, cancer cells release substances into the blood that cause symptoms not usually thought of as a result of cancer. For example, some cancers of the pancreas can release substances that cause blood clots to develop in veins of the legs. Some lung cancers make hormone-like substances that affect the levels of calcium in the blood, affecting nerves and muscles and causes weakness and dizziness.

Treatment is most effective when the cancer is found as soon as possible. Finding cancer early usually means it can be treated while it is still small and is less likely to have spread to other parts of the body. This often means a better chance of cure, especially if the initial treatment should be surgery. A good example of the importance of finding breast cancer early is the skin cancer melanoma. skin cancer can be easily removed if it has not grown deep into the skin, and 5-year survival (percentage of people living at least five years after diagnosis) at this stage is nearly 100%. But once melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, the survival rate decreases dramatically.

Sometimes people ignore symptoms either because they do not know that the symptoms could mean something is wrong, either because they were scared of what t.