‘Healthy’ woman, 32, riddled with cancer stuns doctors when they discover surprising first symptom
A MUM who suddenly went blind in one eye turned out to have lung cancer, medics have revealed.
The 32-year-old from India had never smoked but doctors discovered she was riddled with tumours that had previously not caused any other symptoms.
Dr Alok Pratap Singh, of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, said the case shows doctors should always check for lung cancer in patients with vision issues.
He said: “Despite widespread malignant involvement, the patient was completely asymptomatic and active except for visual disturbances.
“This case further emphasises the necessity of prompt and priority-based evaluation of patients for lung carcinoma whenever doubtful intraocular lesions are noted.
“It seems that these cases represent a distinct subset of lung malignancy.”
Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer, leading to more than 35,000 deaths a year.
Around 6,000 Brits who have never smoked get lung cancer annually, making up around 10 per cent of all cases.
When the disease spreads to other parts of the body it is known as metastatic cancer.
Tumours develop in the eyes in around 0.1 to 7per cent of metastatic lung cancer cases.
The woman’s case was reported in the Elsevier journal Radiology Case Reports.
She went to hospital after losing vision, with occasional flashes of light in her left eye over the previous 20 days.
There was no pain or redness around either of her eyes and she also has not suffered injuries or problems with other parts of her body, she said.
Scans found a growth on the inside black surface known medically as the fundus of her right eye.
Small growths were also spotted on her left eye but blood tests showed she had red and white blood cell counts in the normal range.
She was given a chest X-ray which revealed growths in her lower right lung which doctors suspected was cancerous.
Further tests revealed tumours across multiple organs in her body and she was diagnosed with lung carcinoma with choroidal metastasis in both the eyes.
WHAT IS LUNG CANCER?
LUNG cancer is the most deadly common cancer in the UK.
It is considered a common cancer alongside prostate, breast and bowel, which together make up more than half of all new cases.
Around 49,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year and 35,000 die from it.
Just one in 10 patients survive for a decade or more after being diagnosed and lung tumours make up 21 per cent of cancer deaths in the UK but only 13 per cent of cases.
The main reason that it is so deadly is that symptoms are not obvious in the early stages.
When signs do appear they may include:
- A cough that lasts three weeks or more, and may hurt
- Repeated chest infections
- Coughing up blood
- Breathlessness
- Unusual tiredness
The NHS does not routinely screen for lung cancer but is rolling out more tests to smokers and ex-smokers at high risk, in a bid to catch it earlier. Testing may involve X-rays and chest CT scans.
Smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer and accounts for about 70 per cent of cases.
Risk may also be higher for people who have inhaled other fumes or toxic substances at work, such as asbestos, coal smoke or silica.