Author/Senior Medical Media Person Ady

Interviewed experts: An Xiongjian, Vice President of Aviation General Hospital of China Medical University, Director of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine (ICU) Center and Director of Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Center.

This article has been published in the special issue of People's Daily "Minsheng Weekly" published on 20161,with the original title "Seeing a doctor because of herpes zoster, but finding a tumor".

Editor Zilin has something to say.

Li Yujie (pseudonym) is a patient with prostate cancer. In the past, tumors were discovered through physical examination or some symptoms. However, Li Yujie's experience in finding tumors was somewhat "out of line". Things have to start from two months ago when he got herpes.

If you have herpes zoster, don't forget to screen for tumors.

At first, Mr. Li came to the hospital because of the severe herpes zoster, which is what we usually call the waist-wrapped snake sore, because the cutting and burning pain of herpes zoster was unbearable for him. At that time, Dr. An Xiongjian from the Pain Department of Aviation General Hospital was admitted. After learning about Mr. Li's condition, he was immediately examined for tumor markers and abdominal B-ultrasound. Unexpectedly, he found that Mr. Li's tumor marker PSA increased significantly.

Abdominal ultrasound also found a 4 cm tumor on his prostate. Mr. Li hurried to the urology department for further examination. You may be curious, why do you want to check tumor markers and abdominal B-ultrasound when you come to see herpes zoster? What disease is this herpes zoster? How can it have something to do with the tumor? Dr. An Xiongjian said that most people think that herpes zoster is just a skin problem, but in fact it is related to tumors.

Herpes zoster, what are you?

The existence and growth of herpes zoster virus does not happen overnight. Everyone knows that children are prone to chicken pox. Although it is called "chickenpox", chickenpox may not always occur when it comes on. Some children will get chicken pox, but some children are sick but have no symptoms, and even they don't know they have chicken pox when they are adults. But in either case, in fact, as early as that time, herpes zoster virus has been lurking in the ganglia of our bodies.

In other words, when we were young, we were infected with this virus, called chickenpox, and when we were adults, we got this disease, called herpes zoster. It's just that different periods have different names, but the roots are the same. Chickenpox virus likes to hide in our trigeminal ganglion (also called semilunar ganglion), and facial herpes zoster is because the virus invades this ganglion.

According to the paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, American experts extracted the virus from the semilunar ganglion after many years of autopsy and cultured it, and found that the existence rate of herpes zoster virus in the semilunar ganglion was as high as 87%.

In addition, it also likes to hide in the dorsal root ganglion, and the herpes zoster in the chest is caused by the invasion of the dorsal root ganglion. In dorsal root ganglion, the prevalence of herpes zoster virus is 57%. It's just that some people live in peace with this virus all their lives and don't stimulate it. There are still a few people whose optic nerves are affected by the virus, so they can't see. There is also a virus that invades the oculomotor nerve, causing eye muscle paralysis and ghosting.

So how did we accidentally recruit the chickenpox virus that we contracted when we were young in adulthood? Dr. An Xiongjian said that all the reasons leading to low immunity will lead to the rapid propagation of the virus in the ganglion and attack the human body, thus causing herpes zoster. Such as staying up late, mental shock, colds, tumors, cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy. When the resistance drops, the virus in the ganglion will multiply and attack the human body. One is to attack the nerves. We feel that herpes zoster hurts because the virus attacks the nerves.

The second is to attack the skin. Virus attacks cause herpes on the skin of the face, neck and waist. The most important of these reasons is to eliminate tumor, the most critical hidden danger. Cancer patients have low immunity, so many will suffer from herpes zoster. Through years of clinical investigation, it is found that among patients with herpes zoster, women suffer from ovarian cancer, while men suffer from prostate cancer and lung cancer. Therefore, patients who come to see a doctor for herpes zoster should routinely do tumor markers and abdominal B-ultrasound examination.

Although not 100% of patients with herpes zoster have tumors, some patients do have tumors because of herpes zoster, so be careful!

Disclaimer: This article was originally written by Ady, and has been professionally proofread by the interviewed experts. It is forbidden to reprint and extract it without authorization, otherwise the legal responsibility will be strictly investigated! Some pictures come from the internet. For more authoritative health knowledge, please pay attention to WeChat official account: Ady reads health for you.

Brief introduction of the author

Lin Zi, a senior medical media person, a medical popular science writer and former director of health program of Beijing TV Station, has been deeply involved in the field of health communication for nearly ten years. On 20 15 and 10, the medical popular science column "Zilin Read Health for You" was founded. In half a year, the cumulative reading volume of major websites exceeded10 million.