Pay attention to digestive tract health and attach importance to early screening and early detection

Moderator: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the People’s Daily Health Video Program. I’m Wen Yan, the host.

In recent years, with the social development, environmental changes and changes in people’s lifestyles, the incidence of digestive tract diseases is increasing. It is reported that among all tumor diseases, digestive tract tumors cover the widest range, including gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer and pancreatic cancer. Tumors of digestive tract system account for about 40% of the total tumor incidence, and patients who die of digestive tract cancer account for nearly half of all tumor patients every year. Digestive tract tumor has a high incidence rate, high mortality rate and the trend of rejuvenation, which has become a disease that affects and threatens the health of citizens. Today, we invited Chu Wen, director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Chongqing Hongyitang Hospital, to talk with us about related topics.

Moderator: Hello, Director Chu!

Early literature:Good host, good friends!

Moderator: Excuse me, Director Chu, why are there so many people suffering from digestive tract tumors? What is the reason for the trend of rejuvenation in recent years?

Early literature:Clinically, we call digestive system cancers such as colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and esophageal cancer "eating" cancer. Why is it called "eating" cancer? Mainly because the occurrence of these tumors is closely related to diet and living habits. In addition to family genetic history, eating smoked, pickled and fried foods, and high-salt diet are all important factors that cause cancer.

Especially now, patients with digestive tract tumors are younger, because most young people like to stay up late for a long time, drink too much, and eat irregularly. These bad living habits may lead to gastrointestinal diseases, which may seriously lead to tumors; Not only that, the pressure of work, family and society may do harm to young people’s health, but it is not easy to be detected.

Moderator: Why do many patients find out that they are in the middle and late stages?

Early literature:Most digestive tract cancers, such as patients with gastric cancer and intestinal cancer, have no obvious feelings in the early stage and are easily overlooked. As long as the discomfort can be tolerated, they don’t care too much. The clinical symptoms of early gastric cancer are no different from those of benign diseases such as gastritis and gastric ulcer. In addition, once the stomach is uncomfortable, many people often carry it hard or buy medicine themselves to relieve the discomfort symptoms, which often delays the illness and treatment. Therefore, in order to find it as early as possible, on the one hand, we should pay attention to the abnormal signals sent by the body, on the other hand, we should go to the hospital for gastrointestinal endoscopy in time.

Moderator: Then how should we change the status quo and improve the cure rate and survival rate of digestive tract tumors?

Early literature:The main thing is to do "early screening and early investigation". Whether it is gastric cancer or colorectal cancer, the process of its occurrence and development is a multi-stage slow process, which usually takes 10-15 years. For example, gastric cancer, from common gastropathy to gastric cancer, will go through four stages: from chronic superficial gastritis to chronic atrophic gastritis, to intestinal metaplasia, heterosexual hyperplasia, and finally to gastric cancer.

However, most digestive tract cancers can be found, diagnosed and treated in the early stage and precancerous stage, from normal to precancerous stage, from early stage to middle and late stage. It should be said that our treatment window is also very clear. If the digestive tract tumor reaches the middle and late stage, the median survival time is about 18 months, even if immunotherapy and chemotherapy are combined. It can be seen that early detection and treatment are very important for digestive tract tumors.

Moderator: What are the general screening methods for digestive system tumors?

Early literature:For screening methods of digestive system tumors, a large number of practices have proved that gastrointestinal endoscopy is an effective means for early screening of digestive system tumors. If it can be found early, it can get good therapeutic effect. The five-year survival rate of early gastric cancer can reach 95%, and the five-year survival rate of early colorectal cancer can reach more than 90%. Even the pancreatic cancer, the king of cancer, can reach 86% if it can be found early. Therefore, it is suggested that people over 40 years old should have regular gastroscopy and people over 45 years old should have regular colonoscopy. Early examination and early treatment will lead to better prognosis.

Moderator: Many people around us will have some problems of indigestion and stomach discomfort, so which stomach diseases are easy to develop into gastric cancer?

Early literature:At present, the common precancerous lesions mainly include gastric ulcer, chronic atrophic gastritis, gastric polyp and other diseases. If we find that these diseases are not actively treated and we don’t pay attention to our diet, it is possible to induce gastric cancer. If it exists for more than three to five years, the probability of developing gastric cancer is very high. In addition, Helicobacter pylori infection is a clear risk factor for gastric cancer.

Moderator: Actually, many people still don’t know much about Helicobacter pylori, so what is Helicobacter pylori?

Early literature:Helicobacter pylori (HP) is a spiral, slightly anaerobic bacterium with strict requirements on growth conditions. It was successfully isolated from the biopsy tissue of gastric mucosa of patients with chronic active gastritis for the first time in 1983, and it is the only microorganism species that can survive in human stomach at present. Helicobacter pylori is considered as a class I carcinogen, which can cause a variety of stomach diseases, including gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, gastric cancer and so on. Therefore, timely detection and eradication of Helicobacter pylori has become an important measure for the treatment of digestive tract diseases.

Moderator: So how is Helicobacter pylori infected?

Early literature:Helicobacter pylori is highly contagious, mainly through oral transmission and fecal transmission. It is related to bad diet and hygiene habits, such as eating unclean food or drinking unclean water; Long-term close contact with infected people, contact with saliva, body fluids, vomit or feces of infected people, eating without washing hands, direct mouth-to-mouth feeding, etc. If one person in the family is infected, it will easily cause infection in the whole family. Prevention of helicobacter pylori infection is as important as prevention of digestive tract infectious diseases.

Moderator: How do you judge that you are infected with Helicobacter pylori? Is there any self-examination method that can be used for reference?

Early literature:If you find yourself with belching, halitosis and epigastric discomfort, you can go to the hospital for Helicobacter pylori testing. At present, there are two main detection methods: one is to draw blood to check the serum antibody of Helicobacter pylori, and the other is to check C13 or C14 breath test. For those individuals who have a family history of gastric cancer and have been proved to have gastric mucosal atrophy and/or intestinal metaplasia after endoscopic resection of early gastric cancer, it is suggested that they must be detected and treated, and C13 or C14 breath test can be checked regularly every year.

Moderator: For gastrointestinal diseases, what kind of symptoms need to be vigilant?

Early literature:There are many manifestations of gastrointestinal diseases. The main manifestations of upper gastrointestinal tract are epigastric discomfort, pain, abdominal distension, hiccups, nausea, vomiting, etc. The main manifestations of lower gastrointestinal discomfort are abdominal pain, poor defecation, constipation, diarrhea and increased exhaust. If these alarm symptoms and signs such as unexplained emaciation, anemia, hematemesis, melena, dysphagia and abdominal mass appear, you should go to the hospital for examination in time to find out the cause.

Moderator: OK, thank you very much for sharing, and thank you for your attention. Bye!

Early literature:Goodbye!