Bleeding gums: Warning signs of cancer

Doctors warn that if bleeding gums occur frequently, people need to pay close attention because it could be a warning sign of the risk of leukemia.

Bleeding gums indicate dangerous blood diseases.

Patient Nguyen Pham Kh., 2 years old, residing in Thanh Hoa, is being treated for leukemia. Kh.'s father confided that his son has been healthy since birth and rarely gets sick. Last March, he had symptoms of bleeding gums. He did not brush his teeth or even touched anything and it bled.

The couple took their child to a nearby pediatrician, who said the child had periodontitis and prescribed antibiotics. However, the bleeding gums did not improve.

Even when the child held a small medicine box in his mouth, the bleeding could not be stopped. His parents took him to Hop Luc Hospital in Thanh Hoa. The doctor suspected a blood disease and referred Kh. to the Central Cancer Hospital for examination. The result was that he had leukemia: "My husband and I could not believe our ears because he had no symptoms, just bleeding gums, who would have thought it was cancer."

Recently, an English teacher in Son La was taken to the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in a state of uncontrollable bleeding from the gums.

Patient Eldniz (1992), Azerbaijani nationality, was brought to the Institute in a state of severe physical weakness due to blood loss due to leg bleeding. At Son La Provincial General Hospital, the patient was initially diagnosed with suspected acute leukemia.

Immediately after intensive tests, patient Eldniz was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia (acute myeloid leukemia) accompanied by "Disseminated intravascular coagulation disorder", a serious disease that can be life-threatening.

Master Vu Quang Hung - Deputy Head of the Department of Chemotherapy, Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion said that after only 7 days of treatment, patient Eldniz had received 41 units of blood type B, this is one of the serious cases that required blood transfusion in such a short time.

According to Master Vu Quang Hung, leukemia cells develop in the blood and bone marrow at a high rate, leading to a decrease in platelets and red blood cells, internal bleeding, and fatigue. At the same time, patients are susceptible to bacterial and fungal infections because white blood cells are severely reduced.

Therefore, the patient had to receive a blood transfusion, antibiotics, targeted drugs and blood products. Compared to the initial condition when he was admitted to the hospital, Eldniz is now out of danger, but still has to continue treatment and use a ventilator.

At the Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, doctors once received a case of a male patient (36 years old, in Hoa Binh). Initially, the patient had some bruises on his skin, and even bleeding gums when brushing his teeth, but he did not go to the hospital for examination and treatment. When he arrived at the hospital, it was too late, although the doctors tried their best to save him, but because the disease was too severe, he had a brain hemorrhage and did not survive due to thrombocytopenia.

Therefore, doctors recommend not to be subjective with signs of bleeding gums because it warns of dangerous diseases and blood disorders.

Not only is it a warning sign of the risk of leukemia, Swedish scientists have recently widely published information stating that bleeding gums can also be a sign of breast cancer in women.

A group of scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm conducted a study and showed that people who regularly have bleeding gums have an 11 times higher risk of breast cancer than those who do not have this sign.

The results of this study have caused much controversy and conflicting opinions since their publication. To find the link between the risk of cancer and bleeding gums, more specific research is needed.

According to Infonet