How come liver cancer is diagnosed at the advanced stage after a checkup? Beware of these daily asymptomatic liver cancers

Liver cancer susceptible population:

He ate well and slept well, had no jaundice or ascites, but when he was checked, he was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer! What's more, his brother had just been diagnosed with liver cancer, and he accompanied him to the treatment and had a checkup, and it turned out that he also had liver cancer!

"If you experience symptoms such as weight loss, yellowing of the face, and loss of appetite, you should be alert to the possibility of liver cancer, but the absence of these symptoms does not necessarily mean that you are fine. In fact, many tumors, including liver cancer, have very vague early symptoms or even no symptoms. Once they are discovered, they are often already in the late stages, making it difficult to take radical treatment at this time."

Experts remind citizens: liver cancer is particularly prone to "family members". If a blood relative is sick, it is best to be vigilant and have regular checkups.

Reminder: It is best for susceptible people to have an ultrasound every six months

Professor Liu Chao from the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University reminds that people with a history of hepatitis B, a family history of liver cancer, drinking alcohol, and those who like to eat pickled foods in daily life are all susceptible to liver cancer. It is best for such people to undergo an ultrasound examination every six months to detect the disease in time.

"Particularly worth mentioning are patients with a family history, because liver cancer seems to particularly favor 'family members', which may be the result of the genetic susceptibility of the disease itself." Liu Chao said that he has recently encountered the same family members who have been diagnosed with cancer one after another, and even encountered a situation where two brothers were on the operating table for liver cancer surgery at the same time.

"The occurrence of tumors is caused by external factors acting through internal factors. The same genes, coupled with similar lifestyle habits, make many types of tumors, including liver cancer, prefer to favor the same family members who are blood-related."

Case: Liver cancer has reached the late stage but no obvious symptoms

Mr. Cai, who is in his seventies, has always felt that he enjoys eating and is in good health. As a result, even after more than ten years of retirement, he has never participated in the free physical examination organized by his unit.

Some time ago, Mr. Cai frequently got up at night to urinate, and suspected that he had prostatitis, so he went to the hospital for treatment. The results of the examination were shocking: Mr. Cai also suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney cysts, prostatitis, and liver cancer. Even more unfortunately, the liver tumor had invaded the portal vein, and the liver cancer had developed to the late stage.

After learning the test results, Mr. Cai and his family were very confused. He had no pain in the liver area, no jaundice, no ascites, and a strong appetite. How could he be diagnosed with advanced liver cancer? Why didn't he show any signs before?

Analysis: Various diseases can mask tumor symptoms

Professor Wang Jie, deputy director of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that many patients in clinical practice have the same misunderstanding as Cai Bo: they think that it is impossible to have a tumor without symptoms such as weight loss, jaundice, ascites and loss of appetite.

"In fact, in reality, many tumors lack typical symptoms in the early stages, and even have no symptoms in the late stages, and by the time the diagnosis is confirmed, it has often lost its therapeutic significance." Wang Jie said that judging whether a tumor has entered the late stage does not depend on whether the patient has symptoms, but on factors such as liver function, tumor size, whether it has invaded blood vessels, and whether metastasis has occurred.

Wang Jie said that many liver cancer patients have developed to the late stage but have no clinical symptoms. There may be many reasons for this:

First, the patient's liver has good compensatory function. "For ordinary people, generally speaking, as long as there is 30% of the liver, it is enough to maintain the normal functioning of the human body. Although the tumor has invaded the liver and even the blood vessels, as long as 30% of the liver is not affected, there will be no symptoms." Wang Jie said that this does not mean that the patient can sit back and relax, because the tumor grows very fast. When the tumor cells invade the liver, symptoms such as jaundice and ascites will appear, and by then the treatment will be difficult to be effective.

Secondly, if the patient's tumor happens to grow in the center of the liver, and the liver volume has not increased significantly, the tension of the liver capsule is not high, and the surrounding nerves are not affected, there may be no pain. If the cancer thrombus has not invaded the portal vein, or has invaded the portal vein but has not completely blocked it, there will be no ascites.

Tumor necrosis can cause cold symptoms

In addition, the patients themselves have underlying diseases, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, cholecystitis, gallstones, stomach problems, etc. The symptoms of these diseases are similar to those of cancer, which conceals the true nature of the disease. Clinically, many patients have a low fever and chills, and they think they have a cold and go to the doctor, only to find out that they have liver cancer after a B-ultrasound.

In fact, tumor necrosis can also cause symptoms such as low-grade fever, chills, and colds. The patient's diabetes may also mask the weight loss caused by the tumor.