Symptoms of gallbladder cancer at different stages

What are the symptoms of gallbladder cancer patients at different stages? Gallbladder cancer is a malignant tumor originating from the gallbladder. It often coexists with benign gallbladder diseases when it occurs. It is easy to be ignored by patients, resulting in misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis, which can eventually lead to the deterioration of the disease to the late stage and even threaten the patient's life. Therefore, early understanding of the symptoms of gallbladder cancer is of great significance to the treatment of the patient's condition!

Gallbladder cancer can be divided into three stages: early, middle and late, and the clinical symptoms of each stage are different.

Early symptoms of gallbladder cancer

1. Most patients with gallbladder cancer have no obvious symptoms in the early stage, so it is difficult to detect. Its clinical manifestations are mainly pain in the upper middle abdomen or right upper abdomen. Some patients have intermittent or continuous pain, while others have dull pain or colic, and the pain progressively worsens. When patients have abdominal pain, it may involve the right shoulder, back, chest, etc., which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from cholelithiasis.

2. In addition to abdominal pain, patients with gallbladder cancer may also experience loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, etc. The patient gradually loses weight, sometimes showing symptoms of acute or chronic cholecystitis.

Symptoms of gallbladder cancer in the middle stage

1. In the middle stage of gallbladder cancer, patients may experience symptoms such as pain in the middle or right upper abdomen, indigestion, decreased appetite, and jaundice.

2. The abdominal pain experienced by patients is similar to that of calculous cholecystitis, because most patients have gallstones. In the later stages, it becomes a persistent dull pain.

Symptoms of advanced gallbladder cancer

1. Hepatomegaly. When the cancer is located at the junction of the left and right hepatic ducts or the common hepatic duct, the liver will swell.

2. Splenomegaly: When biliary cirrhosis occurs in the late stage of bile cyst carcinoma and portal hypertension occurs at the same time, splenomegaly or varicose veins of the abdominal wall may occur.

3. Yellowing of the skin and sclera is the most prominent sign of gallbladder cancer. Yellowing of the sclera usually occurs in the early stage of the disease, but as the gallbladder cancer patient's condition progresses, the obstruction worsens and the skin may become yellowish. In severe cases, the skin may turn yellow-green, indicating that the bile duct obstruction is serious.

4. Enlarged gallbladder. This is helpful in determining the location of the tumor. Generally, the enlargement of the gallbladder is not obvious in upper bile duct cancer, while the enlarged gallbladder can be palpated during physical examination in middle bile duct cancer, and a more obvious gallbladder can be palpated in lower bile duct cancer.

5. Mass in the right upper abdomen. A relatively smooth and enlarged gallbladder can be felt in the right upper abdomen. When there is no adhesion to the surrounding tissue, it is highly mobile. When there is adhesion to the surrounding tissue, several masses can be felt, and sometimes an enlarged liver or a mass of duodenal obstruction can be felt.

6. Jaundice is a symptom of advanced gallbladder cancer, manifested by yellowing of the mucous membranes and skin. Severe yellowing is usually obstructive. Once jaundice occurs, the disease is usually in the advanced stage.

7. In addition to complications, gallbladder cancer in the late stage is also prone to metastasis and spread, the most common metastasis is liver metastasis.