How will the body react to liver cancer? What tests are needed to diagnose liver cancer?

We all know that for malignant tumors such as liver cancer, it is usually in the late stage when it is diagnosed. What are the symptoms of patients with primary liver cancer in the late stage? Let's take a look at the late symptoms of primary liver cancer introduced by experts.

How will the body react after suffering from liver cancer?

Patients will experience poor appetite, nausea, and vomiting, which are often caused by liver damage and tumor compression of the gastrointestinal tract. Among them, poor appetite is a common symptom, and the more severe the condition, the more obvious the symptoms. Secondly, diarrhea will occur, which is mainly caused by varying degrees of liver damage leading to a decrease in digestion and absorption capacity, and can also be caused by the metastasis of liver cancer cells to form portal vein cancer thrombus. Although this symptom is not very common, it can sometimes be used as the first symptom of liver cancer and is often misdiagnosed as a gastrointestinal infection. Diarrhea may not be accompanied by abdominal pain. It usually occurs after eating. The stool is mostly undigested food residues, often without pus or blood, and cannot be controlled by anti-inflammatory drugs. When the condition is serious, more than ten bowel movements a day can rapidly deteriorate the condition.

Patients may also experience fever, which is caused by tumor tissue necrosis, increased metabolic products, and tumor compression of the bile duct combined with cholangitis. Those without infection are called cancer fever, which is usually not accompanied by chills. Unexplained low-grade fever is a common symptom of liver cancer. The body temperature is generally between 37.5℃ and 38℃, but inflammatory diffuse liver cancer often has high fever, which can reach above 39℃. It is easily misdiagnosed as liver abscess, and antibiotic treatment is often ineffective.

Jaundice: It usually occurs in the late stage of liver cancer. It can be caused by liver cell damage, or by compression or invasion of the bile duct near the liver porta hepatis by the cancer mass, or by bile duct obstruction caused by the detachment of cancer tissue and blood clots.

Symptoms of metastatic lesions: If metastasis occurs to the lungs, bones, chest cavity, etc., corresponding symptoms may occur. Chest cavity metastasis is more common on the right side, and there may be signs of pleural effusion. Bone or spinal metastasis may cause local tenderness or nerve compression symptoms, and intracranial metastatic cancer may have nerve localization signs.

Systemic manifestations of malignant tumors: Liver cancer patients have progressive weight loss, fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, malnutrition and cachexia. A small number of liver disease patients may have special systemic manifestations, called paraneoplastic syndrome, with hypoglycemia and polycythemia being the most common, and other rare ones include hypercalcemia, hyperlipidemia, carcinoid, etc.

What tests should be done for primary liver cancer?

1. Ultrasound examination: B-ultrasound examination is economical and convenient. It can show the size, shape and location of the tumor, and the diagnostic accuracy rate is about 90%. The detection rate of liver lesions is also relatively high. Generally speaking, it takes about 4 to 6 months for liver cancer to grow from 1 cm to 3 cm. Therefore, if the first B-ultrasound liver cancer examination does not show liver cancer, take another examination 4 to 6 months later. The liver cancer should still be below 3 cm, and the treatment effect should be good.

2. CT: CT is a very important method for liver cancer examination, and it is widely used in China. However, when the diameter of liver cancer is less than 2 cm or the density is close to that of normal liver parenchyma, it is difficult to show it on CT. Liver cancer is diffuse and difficult to detect on CT; it is difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary liver cancer.

3. pET-CT: pET-CT is one of the examination items for early detection of liver cancer. Patients with hepatitis B and other conditions may consider the examination. pET-CT is a functional molecular imaging system that integrates pET and CT. It can not only accurately locate the anatomical location of the lesion through CT morphological imaging, but also reflect the biochemical metabolic information of the liver's space-occupying tissue through pET functional imaging. At the same time, whole-body scanning can understand the overall condition and evaluate the metastasis, so as to achieve the purpose of early detection of lesions. At the same time, it can understand the size and metabolic changes of the tumor before and after treatment.

4. Magnetic resonance imaging: Magnetic resonance imaging is a fast-growing examination method in recent years. In the past, MRI was not as ideal as CT examination. Now, with the continuous development of MRI technology, the scanning time is getting faster and faster, and the resolution is getting higher and higher. It can also be used as a relatively accurate judgment for some small lesions in the liver. Now MRI also plays a very important role in the examination of liver cancer.

1. The diet for primary liver cancer should vary from time to time

Most patients in the middle and late stages of primary liver cancer will have symptoms of malnutrition. Severe patients will become extremely thin, moderate patients will lose weight, and mild patients will also experience malaise and physical weakness. These are all manifestations of malnutrition. Physical and chemical examinations will show symptoms such as anemia and low protein.

(1) For patients with better gastrointestinal function, dietary nutrition is the main approach.

(2) For patients with poor gastrointestinal function, the treatment is mainly diet, supplemented by enteral and parenteral nutrition.

(3) For patients who have lost gastrointestinal function and are unable to eat, enteral nutrition is used as the main treatment, supplemented by parenteral nutrition. After the gastrointestinal function is restored through treatment, dietary nutrition therapy is given.

2. Primary liver cancer diet should pay attention to the balance of warm and cool

Our body surface is stable at around 37 degrees. If it exceeds this stability, it will be fever, and if it is lower than this stability, it will be malnourished. Therefore, in addition to living in a relatively warm and cool environment, humans also need to consume warm and cool balanced foods to maintain the temperature balance of their bodies. Therefore, in summer, they like to eat ice chests, cucumbers, bitter melons, and cold foods to lower their body temperature. In winter, they like to eat hot foods such as hot pot, mutton, and beef to keep the body from dissipating too much heat in winter. Therefore, we humans also divide food into warm, hot, cold, and cool foods to meet the needs of different seasons and different physiques. If you don’t understand this knowledge, blind eating will destroy the temperature balance of our body and harm our health. Therefore, when we choose food, we must constantly experience and explore the food rules that are suitable for our diet to ensure our health. Pine pollen is a warm food and medicine, and spirulina is a cool food or medicine. We call it a food with the same origin of medicine and food. .

3. Balanced nutrition is as important as replenishing vitality

Life must have three elements to survive. The first is the life ability and vitality of life. The second is the basic conditions of suitable environmental temperature and body temperature balance for life. The third is the nutrients needed to maintain vitality and achieve body movement. Only with these three conditions can life survive. Fresh vegetables and grains have vitality. Vegetables and grains that have been left for too long have reduced or lost their vitality. Therefore, we all like to eat fresh vegetables. Therefore, the natural need of life is first to supplement vitality, followed by nutritional needs.

If conditions permit, you should eat more types of food. The more types of food you eat, the more balanced your nutrition will be. For example, our human body needs hundreds of amino acids, and the amount of amino acids we take in from food is far from enough. At present, we humans can produce about 20 kinds of amino acids. Our human body can also synthesize many kinds of amino acids to meet its own needs. There are also hundreds of other trace elements. A diversified diet will absorb more nutrients. Our nutrient solution is an aggregate of diversified foods designed according to the basic needs of the human body. It is very suitable for patients with poor intestinal function.

The diet for primary liver cancer varies from patient to patient, so the foods that can be eaten are also different. However, basic dietary principles must be followed. The above article introduces the dietary principles for liver cancer patients in detail. A good diet is a good medicine and plays a positive role in treatment. A chaotic dietary principle will not only fail to play an auxiliary treatment role, but may even aggravate the condition.