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A pregnancy test as a method of diagnosing cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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An ordinary pregnancy test, which can be purchased at any pharmacy, helped doctors identify testicular cancer in a young man from the UK. 19-year-old Byron Gelgard learned about the terrible disease immediately after returning from the summer holidays. He turned to the doctors with a complaint about the constant pain in the inguinal zone, at first the doctors took the symptom for the stretch that could occur during sports, but after the examination everything turned out to be much more serious.
The principle of any pregnancy test is to determine the level of certain hormones that are produced in the female body with the onset of pregnancy. Rapid growth of hormones ( beta-chorionic gonadotropin ) occurs not only during pregnancy, but also in the development of certain types of cancer tumors, including testicular cancer, which is why tests for pregnancy are prescribed by specialists as one of the methods diagnostics.
According to Danish Mazhar, an oncologist at the University Oncology Hospital in Cambridge, the level of beta-chorionic gonadotropin becomes extremely high when the cancer cells are spreading throughout the body. Since men by their nature can not become pregnant, tests are used as a diagnostic tool. cancer with an appropriate clinical picture, for the final diagnosis.
Byron Gehlard took the terrible news quite hard, and it took him a while to realize everything that was happening to him. According to the young Briton, everything that happened to him, little resembled reality. After contacting the doctors and the examination, the young man had to make a pregnancy test, which, to his surprise, turned out to be positive, as a result, Byron was informed that his testicles had developed a cancerous tumor.
Further treatment also took place in a slightly strange form, as Byron himself put it. The specialists decided to do an epidural anesthesia (anesthesia method, which is used during childbirth). Further examination showed that the cancer struck not only the testicles, but also the lungs and part of the belly of the young man. During surgery, the oncosurgeons removed one testicle and a tumor from the belly of Byron with the lymph nodes adjacent to it.
The young man was treated more than six months. After the operation, Byron underwent a complete chemotherapy course. During the treatment, the experts again used pregnancy tests to assess the patient's condition and the effectiveness of the therapy. According to the analysis, the level of beta-chorionic gonadotropin in the body of a young Briton began to decline. At this stage, Byron is in a state of remission.
According to the young man, the news of the terrible diagnosis was given to him hard, and now, after a successful treatment, he intends to make every effort to get as many adolescents as possible about this disease, and that cancer is not a verdict, it can be and you need to fight.
Now Byron plans to participate in a comedy show and testicular cancer, whose goal is to convey more information about this disease and methods of treatment to people.
Also, the young Briton provides all kinds of assistance to the hospital where he underwent treatment. As Byron himself noted, he stayed in comfortable conditions, in a room with a TV and free Wi-Fi. Also during his stay in the hospital, the young man met there with Stephen Fry and John Bishop, who morally supported the young man.
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