Cancer Treatment Options Forum - February 7th, 2011 - 4 Comments
Question on getting checked for cancer.?
Hello all,
I grew up fairly poor and never had the opportunity to get any medical testing, despite cancer and heart disease being very common in my family. I’m in my early 20′s and have a career now and for the past few years I have always bounced the idea around in my head of getting some sort of ‘complete’ check, as I have quite a few moles that come in various shapes/colors that keep me uneasy. The other day I found a full on lump, hard as a rock, and slightly painful, under my right armpit. Could be cancer, could be a hair that came in wrong (thx google!) but it has definitely made me get serious about this testing. My question is this- when I get really sick, I goto one of those clinics and get a prescription. How do I go about getting tested for cancer? Are there clinics that give a full range of tests? Do I contact a hospital? What do I ask for? Is it expensive?
I feel like a little kid with this, I don’t have a clue in the world how to go about this, or even begin.
Thanks!
There is no test for cancer. There are more than 200 diseases called cancer and we only have screening tests for 4 of them and you are too young for all but one which is meant for females. What you need to do is find a primary care physician and have a physical. Point out any areas of concern and let them order any tests necessary. Cancer at your age is very uncommon and should not be your first consideration.
It’s actually quite simple. All you have to do is make an appointment with an internal medicine doctor. They will do a physical examination, which will include checking the lymph node/area that you have found a lump. Just call a doctor’s office and let them know you have a lump in your armpit and you want to get it checked out. From that point, the doctor will examine you. Most of the time, a doctor can tell a benign (non-cancer) lump from a malignant (cancer) lump just based on qualities such as hardness/induration, texture, size, consistency, etc. The doctor will also want to order blood work, usually a CBC, complete blood count. This will inform the doctor of any problems going on at the blood level. If the doctor finds this to be suspicious, then you will have a biopsy and that procedure will tell you conclusively whether or not you have cancer.
But majority of the time, these lumps are not cancer, but if they are, you want to get them checked out at the first notice that way it can be caught as early as possible. The big idea is just to breathe and don’t panic, get the full story first. Could be a lot of things, lets not just focus on the c word.
As far as your moles, you can go to a dermatologist and they can inspect them for you. There is a general rule of thumb for skin cancer. ABCD. A stands for assymetry. B stands for border. C stands for color. D stands for diameter. We are looking for moles that change over time. A mole that was once perfectly symmetrical becomes round on one side and jagged on another. A mole that had a flat border now has a raised border. A mole that was brown turns red or purple. A mole that grows larger than the head of a pencil eraser. Those are signs you can do without a dermatologist and then if you have a mole you are concerned with, show it to a doctor at that point. It is quite normal to have moles that are all of different shapes and sizes, the key word here is change.
It is good that you are vigilant about your health, especially since cancer and heart disease run in your family. Certain cancers are genetic (stomach, breast, ovarian, colon), and others arent. Even with certain genetic cancers, some people get them without any prior warning. Usually cancers in the 20s are lymph or blood based, not organ based, but thats not always the rule of thumb, Testicular cancer can also affect young and old men. Same for Breast cancer in women.
So if you go in to a doctor they arent going to run every test known to man on you. They will simply order the testing that is necessitated based on what you present and what they find.
You can call a dr. and make an appointment for bloodwork and also have him check your moles. The worse thing to do is worry, just make an app. very soon so you don’t have to worry anymore.Good luck to you.
You should go to an Internal Medicine doctor for the things you may be worried about internally. And no, like someone suggested you are not too young to get cancer. People of all ages get it yearly. I in fact had it at age 30. Testicular cancer is something that shows up from the ages of 20-35.
It is always good to see your doctor regularly as cancer can’t really be detected before it has arrived. You just have to be on top of it right away and catch it in the earliest stages you can. That is the only real defense, that is why it is important to get regular doctor apts and to give yourself checks too.
As for the moles you need to go to the dermatologist to get them looked at. A good Internal doctor will still send patients out to dermatologist for moles as that is what they are specialized in.
Just get yearly check ups and go in if you think something may be wrong. It is better to be safe than sorry. Take it from me. I thought something may be off even by a little and sure enough it was and I was able to catch mine early and had no problems handling mine because of that.
hahaha I love how I lived through the experience and I am the one who gets a bad rating. Key word here is I lived through it, I survived and yet people think my answer is bogus or something. Oh well…