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House: Big, Fat Lung Cancer
In last night's episode, Que Cera Cera, House pinpoints George's (a 600-lb. homebound headhunter and gourmet cook) mystery ailments as late-stage, terminal lung cancer. How? By taking the diagnosis in hand, literally. House noticed the patient had finger clubbing.
In fact, according to our sister site eMedicine.com, "Clubbing has been reported in 29% of patients with lung cancer, and is observed more commonly in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (35%) than in patients with small cell lung carcinoma (4%)." The site goes on to say clubbing is a tell-tale sign of "various underlying pulmonary, cardiovascular, neoplastic, infectious, hepatobiliary, mediastinal, endocrine, and gastrointestinal diseases. Finger clubbing also may occur, without evident underlying disease, as an idiopathic form or as a Mendelian dominant trait."
Now, clubbing usually can be readily identified in a sight exam. But for this particular patient, whose hands were swollen by obesity, the clubbing just looked a part of his weight issues. And about those weighty concerns...Dr. Chase felt that a morbidly obese patient like George didn't deserve the quality of care a normal weight patient would, because, obviously, he wasn't participating in his own health care. Why then should House and his team go out of their way?
The team did start with obesity as the first line of investigation of his problems, even though George said he'd been overweight all his life and it had never been a health issue. Is it a form of prejudice to start with being overweight as the cause of all your ailments?
I called Brenda, one of our Real Story writers, who two years ago was about 300 lbs. and underwent bariatric surgery, chronicling her dramatic weight loss in her online journal at WebMD. She TiVos House regularly.
"I believe that there are many people, not necessarily just those in the medical field, who agree with Chase, that obese people create their own situation so they should just live with it and not expect to be treated the same as a person who lives a healthy lifestyle," she says. "I believe that there is a similar attitude toward smokers. If they develop breathing problems or lung cancer, some people think they're getting what they asked for."
While no one asks for cancer or any disease, folks need to be responsible for their own health, Brenda says. "At the same time, every patient should have access to diagnosis and treatment."
Tell us what you think.
Related Topics: Surgery Options for the Obese
tags: House, HouseMD, lungcancer, fingerclubbing
Clubbing, or digital clubbing, is actually a medical term and can be a symptom of lung cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic. "The nails appear to bulge out more than normal."
In fact, according to our sister site eMedicine.com, "Clubbing has been reported in 29% of patients with lung cancer, and is observed more commonly in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (35%) than in patients with small cell lung carcinoma (4%)." The site goes on to say clubbing is a tell-tale sign of "various underlying pulmonary, cardiovascular, neoplastic, infectious, hepatobiliary, mediastinal, endocrine, and gastrointestinal diseases. Finger clubbing also may occur, without evident underlying disease, as an idiopathic form or as a Mendelian dominant trait."Now, clubbing usually can be readily identified in a sight exam. But for this particular patient, whose hands were swollen by obesity, the clubbing just looked a part of his weight issues. And about those weighty concerns...Dr. Chase felt that a morbidly obese patient like George didn't deserve the quality of care a normal weight patient would, because, obviously, he wasn't participating in his own health care. Why then should House and his team go out of their way?
The team did start with obesity as the first line of investigation of his problems, even though George said he'd been overweight all his life and it had never been a health issue. Is it a form of prejudice to start with being overweight as the cause of all your ailments?
I called Brenda, one of our Real Story writers, who two years ago was about 300 lbs. and underwent bariatric surgery, chronicling her dramatic weight loss in her online journal at WebMD. She TiVos House regularly.
"I believe that there are many people, not necessarily just those in the medical field, who agree with Chase, that obese people create their own situation so they should just live with it and not expect to be treated the same as a person who lives a healthy lifestyle," she says. "I believe that there is a similar attitude toward smokers. If they develop breathing problems or lung cancer, some people think they're getting what they asked for."
While no one asks for cancer or any disease, folks need to be responsible for their own health, Brenda says. "At the same time, every patient should have access to diagnosis and treatment."
Tell us what you think.
Related Topics: Surgery Options for the Obese
tags: House, HouseMD, lungcancer, fingerclubbing
