if you ended up getting cancer, would you know? what are the signs?

Question

i just wanted to know if you would know you have cancer right away, like would you get sick or anything? or could you go on for a long long time and never know unless you went to a doctor and he found it out of no where?

i asked this because my throat feels funny, it might be a glan or whatever it's called, but i get nervous.. i don't have insurance so i didn't want to rush to the e.r for nothing and get a huge bill

Answer 1

There are over 200 different types of cancer and they all go through progressive stages. What this means is that for the overwhelming majority of cancers for the first two stages the disease will be asymptomatic. No one will know or feel sick at all. You cannot feel a small sized tumor. It basically will sit inside the body undetected unless discovered by accident. In order for anyone to know that they might have cancer a tumor has to grow large enough to start causing some physical problems. And, usually by that time the tumor or cancer is considered advanced. There are few signs to let you know you have cancer. And, even more disturbing for young people is that few family physicians are skilled enough to recognize a cancerous tumor when they see one. Misdiagnosis is very common.

Cancer is a progressive disease, which means it will start out as a microscopic cell and grow either extremely fast (a few weeks or months) or very slow (20 years or more). But cancer always grows. Visualize stage I as a cell the size of the head of a pin. Stage II as the size of a pea. Stage III as many large grapes. Stage IV as golf ball size all the way up to football sized (or larger) that send out tiny replicas of itself all through the body (hundreds and hundreds of microscopic cells into the blood stream and seeding the body).

About the biggest and only clue that something may be happening in the body is finding an unusual lump or bump that just doesn't seem right. The lump may be felt in a place that you could never remember feeling before . . or it might be found by a doctors physical examination (you know when they poke and prode you during a physical . . they're searching for weird feeling lumps). Other clues would depend entirely upon the type of cancer . . but the truth is that most healthy young people experience aches and pains and weight loss pretty regularly and can go many, many months 'living with tumors'. Cancer is not obvious until it is advanced.

Illustration of the four stages of colon cancer. Please note that when the tumor is small . . it is just a tiny pea size or smaller bump. It is not until the tumor grows large and begins to invade the tissue (stage III) and finally 'seed' or metastasize to the rest of the body that the tumor may start to become noticable. If the tumor is pressing on a nerve than a patient might begin to experience some pain or if the tumor is large it will begin to grow its own blood vessels thus taking energy and food from the body. Remember cancer cells were once normal cells in the body, so the body does not recognize that anything is wrong. The body will continue to feed and nourish the tumor just as it does any other part of the body.

The following site is a great resource for information about each disease, recent treatment options, diagnosis, illustrations, coping, news, and a library. You can look up symptoms, staging, treatment, resources for each type of cancer:

People Living with Cancer
http://www.plwc.org

Answer 2

There are around 200 different types of cancer.

Different cancers have different symptoms.

You have mentioned a sore throat, but not any time frame, ntr your age or any other risk factors.

If you are older and a smoker this will increase your risks.

If you are young, a non-smoker and it has only been there a few days, then you are probably safe.

If it continues for more than a week, see a Dr, no matter your age!

Answer 3

It depends what type of cancer. For skin cancer, you'll see you have a messed up beauty marks, for breast cancer, you'll feel a lump, etc. Some people also feel pain where the cancer is, or other symptoms. But the only way to know for sure is if you go to a doctor.

Answer 4

You could go for a long time before it is recognized. I had breast cancer that I found when a lump was suddenly there. It had been growing for 11 years (they could tell because of how the cells were dividing), but it had been at the base of my breast and worked its way to the front. I had mammograms that didn't pick it up.

Answer 5

I had a persistent cold that lasted about 14 days with swollen lymph nodes in my neck. When the swelling didn't go down I had to get a biopsy and found out I have Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had the was in stage II when they found it which meant, I had it for a while before any symptoms were visible.

Answer 6

It can happen either way. Truthfully, it depends on what type you have and the advancement of the problem when doctors find it. Ovarian, for example, has no symptoms. When a woman starts feeling pain, it is USUALLY too far advanced to save the patient's life.

Answer 7

It depends on what kind you have. Some people like me had it for about 4 months with terrible headaches and vomiting before I was actually diagnosed. Other people can go years without knowing anything at all. It all depends on how severe it is and what type.

Answer 8

specific they do lose their hair and it makes them ill merely like it does human beings. as quickly as we found out our jack had maximum cancers of the tissues he grew to become into 11 years previous and that i ask my vet what we could do and he suggested that we could ave chemo completed on him yet whilst he grew to become into his dogs and as previous as my massive boy is he wouldnt do it. and that i instructed him that I considered what maximum cancers did to my Aunt and that i wont pt jack by it and that i ask what else we could do and he suggested take him residing house and love him such as you have been doing for the final 11 years and save making him chuffed. In 2005 I had to have chemo and that i'm so happy I didnt placed my massive boy throigh it because of the fact I lost all my hair and that i grew to become into week and sleepy each and all the time and iratable. I certainly have it on a Monday then by employing Friday I felt human lower back and could could desire to bypass throughout the time of the comparable crap lower back on monday. however the hair does advance back in

Answer 9

it depends. some ppl can go years wit out knowing and it can grow quietly wit out u knowing. it happened to my gran. but the most ovoius ways to spot it r a lump. loss of eating, tiredness. if u think u have cancer go see ur doctor

Answer 10

In the beginning, no, you would not know the cancer is growing. But soon a person loses appetite, is tired very often, skin color becomes pale, and there is weight loss. Yes, there are signs.