How should young people prevent and find cancer in time?

News such as "20-year-old boy died early because of stomach cancer" and "28-year-old girl died unfortunately because of breast cancer" is endless. We gradually realize that cancer is getting closer and closer to the younger generation.

In fact, with the rapid development of modern medical care, most malignant tumors are likely to be cured, but the premise is to find them early! For example, it takes 10 years from benign polyps of large intestine to malignant tumors. Another example is gastric cancer, which takes about 10 years from chronic atrophic gastritis to gastric cancer.

However, the vast majority of young people have not done gastrointestinal endoscopy, and even have no awareness of endoscopy during physical examination. Therefore, once the vast majority of cancer patients are found, they are in the middle and late stages. It can be seen that the key to prevent cancer lies in early detection and early treatment.

So, how can we find the problem early? After all, many potential malignant diseases have no obvious clinical manifestations in the early stage.

First, we should have regular physical examination and early screening.

For example, for people over 40 years old, gastrointestinal endoscopy should be added during physical examination, especially for some high-risk groups (family genetic history, environment, bad eating habits, clinical discomfort symptoms, etc. In order to prevent prostate cancer, it is suggested that men should have PSA (prostate specific antigen) every two years from 50 to 70 years old, and those with family history need to start monitoring earlier. In order to prevent the occurrence of breast cancer, women over 40 years old are advised to have a mammogram once a year.

Second, you need to know your family history. That is to say, it is clear whether family members have a certain disease and whether the disease has a genetic tendency. Because the younger the onset age of malignant tumor, the higher its genetic correlation with the family.

Third, the most important thing is actually self-control. After all, the occurrence of cancer is multifactorial, and the environment, heredity and so on are beyond our control. However, we can choose a healthier lifestyle to prevent cancer.