Sometimes patients with cancer are mistakenly diagnosed with a different diagnosis, which is why the time for treatment may be missed.
25-year-old Casey Altman from San Diego told her story, it is published in the Express. According to the girl, several doctors missed her illness. Eventually, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.
When she went to the doctor, they told her that she had hemorrhoids, and prescribed treatment that did not help. In the end, the diagnosis was made, but too late.
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of sarcoma, a cancer of soft tissues, connective tissue or bone. Rhabdomyosarcoma usually affects children, and its five-year survival rate is about 20 percent.
When Altman was diagnosed correctly, her cancer was at stage 4.
Rhabdomyosarcoma initially resembles a dense, painless lump that increases in size. The process can be accompanied by lethargy, weight loss and lack of appetite. Symptoms depend on the location of the tumor. For example, rhabdomyosarcoma of the eye, located in the tissues behind it, makes it bulge.
What are the symptoms of rhabdomyosarcoma?
- A lump or swelling that grows
- Strabismus
- Headache
- Problems with urination or defecation
- Blood in the urine
- Bleeding from the nose, throat, vagina or rectum.
The National Cancer Institute notes that these signs may also be caused by other conditions.
Altman told about her first symptoms.
— I had tumors that were located near the anus, and no one believed that I had serious problems, because I was young, healthy and looked great, — said the girl.
She underwent chemotherapy, but the cancer still returned.
