指甲彎曲竟是癌症的跡象

Most PEople know to schedule an appointment with their doctor ASAP if they feel a strange lump on their breast or neck. But signs of cancer can be less obvious, too-some, like a pimple that doesn't go away, a hoarse voice, or a "foreign body sensation" in your throat, can seem completely random. Another unexpected symptom to add to that list? Clubbing in the nails, which occurs when fingertips swell and cause the nail to curve downward, and in rare cases could be an early sign of lung cancer.

大多數人在胸部或頸部突然長出腫塊時，都知道要儘快去看醫生。但並非所有的癌症跡象都如此明顯--有些跡象非常隨意，比如不消失的痘痘、嗓音嘶啞或喉嚨有"異物感"。還有什麼令人意外的症狀呢？杵狀指甲，也就是當指尖腫脹，導致指甲向下彎曲的情況，是肺癌的早期徵兆（案例極少）。

This is something a woman from the United Kingdom recently learned firsthand. After posting a photo of her curved nail on Facebook and asking if any of her followers "had seen nails like this," Jeannie Williams Taylor? was "urged to go to the doctor" to have it looked at more closely.

近來，一位英國女士就親身經歷了這件事。在臉書上發了一張指甲彎曲的照片並詢問有沒有人"見過這樣的指甲"後，珍妮·威廉姆斯·泰勒收到各種留言，於是"被逼着去看了醫生"，以得到更仔細的檢查。

Although Taylor thought this reaction was "a tad extreme," as she wrote on Facebook, she took their advice. Soon after, she found herself rushed through a series of tests, including bloodwork, a chest X-ray, CT scan, PET scan, MRI scan, and lung biopsy. After what she calls a "grueling" two weeks, Taylor received her diagnosis: cancer in both of her lungs.

儘管泰勒認爲這種反應"有點極端，"她在臉書上也是這麼寫的，但她還是聽從了大家的建議。不久後，她做了各項檢查，包括血液檢查、胸部X光檢查、CT掃描、PET掃描、核磁共振掃描和肺活檢。過完這"艱苦的"兩週後，泰勒收到了診斷結果：肺癌。

Although the average person might not necessarily associate clubbing with potential illness, it's a well-known red flag in the medical community. "Any good doctor who sees someone has clubbing will know that they may have some sort of lung disease, heart disease, or gastrointestinal disease," says Eric Presser, MD, a thoracic surgeon and member of First California Physician Partners.

雖然普通人認爲杵狀指與潛在疾病沒有什麼關聯，但它卻是醫學界所公認的危險跡象。"權威醫生都知道，若人們有杵狀指，那他們就可能患有某種肺病、心臟病或胃腸道疾病，"醫學博士埃裏克·普雷瑟說道，他是一位胸外科醫生，也是加利福尼亞第一醫生聯盟（First California Physician Partners）的成員。

In addition to lung cancer, Dr. Presser tells us that clubbing could be an early tip-off for a slew of other health conditions ranging from pulmonary fibrosis to mesothelioma to malabsorption problems such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Although experts don't know exactly what causes this symptom, one theory is that certain chronic illnesses trigger a change in the curvature of the nail bed when blood vessels dilate in that part of the body.

普雷瑟醫生告訴我們，除了肺癌，杵狀指也是其它一系列健康問題的早期徵兆，比如肺纖維化、間皮瘤、克羅恩病或潰瘍性結腸炎等吸收不良疾病。儘管專家尚不清楚導致這一症狀的確切原因，但有一種理論認爲，當血管在甲牀擴張時，某些慢性疾病會導致甲牀彎曲。