What are the symptoms of liver cancer? The most obvious symptoms are: 7 symptoms to watch out for, liver cancer is coming

Cancer is scary. Nowadays, liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors. People are very afraid of it. According to hospital experts, the best time to treat liver cancer is in its early stages. However, people usually miss this best treatment time because they don’t know the symptoms of liver cancer. So, what are the early symptoms of liver cancer?

Pain in the liver area

The first symptom of most patients is pain in the liver area, which occurs in more than 50% of cases. The pain in the liver area is usually located in the right rib or under the xiphoid process, and is intermittent or continuous dull pain, hidden pain, and stabbing pain. Before the obvious pain, the patient will feel discomfort in the right upper abdomen, but the pain is sometimes light and sometimes heavy. The main cause of the pain is the rapid enlargement of the tumor, which compresses the liver capsule and creates a pulling sensation. It can also be caused by the necrosis of the tumor irritating the liver capsule. A small number of patients will suddenly experience severe pain in the liver area after liver puncture, which is mostly caused by rupture and bleeding of cancerous nodules in the liver.

Hepatomegaly, splenomegaly

90% of liver cancers cause liver enlargement. The enlarged liver is often hard and irregular in appearance, with nodules of varying sizes on the edges. Giant liver cancers can sometimes deform the liver, making it difficult to distinguish during palpation. Splenomegaly mostly occurs in patients with liver cancer and cirrhosis. Metastatic cancer to the spleen is extremely rare.

fever

A considerable number of liver cancer patients will experience sweating and fever. Most fevers are low to moderate, and a few patients may have high fevers, above 39°C, generally not accompanied by chills. The fever of liver cancer is mostly cancerous fever, which is caused by the release of pyrogens into the blood circulation after tumor tissue necrosis. Tumor patients are prone to infection due to low resistance, and may also have fever, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from cancerous fever of liver cancer. It is necessary to combine blood counts and observe whether antibacterial treatment is effective to make a judgment.

Gastrointestinal symptoms: significant loss of appetite

Loss of appetite, upper abdominal fullness after meals, nausea, etc. are common digestive tract symptoms of liver cancer. Patients with early liver cancer will have symptoms of loss of appetite, abdominal distension, and indigestion, among which loss of appetite and abdominal distension are the most common. Sometimes nausea and vomiting will occur, so people with such symptoms should be vigilant. Diarrhea is also a common digestive tract symptom of liver cancer, with a high incidence rate, and it is easy to be mistaken for chronic enteritis. Portal hypertension and intestinal dysfunction caused by portal vein or hepatic vein cancer thrombus can cause abdominal distension and increased bowel movements. Abdominal distension can also be caused by ascites. Gastrointestinal dysfunction can also lead to symptoms such as indigestion, warm air, and nausea.

Bleeding

It often manifests as nose bleeding and subcutaneous bleeding, which is mostly caused by liver tissue destruction and liver failure. Portal hypertension can cause esophageal and gastric varicose vein rupture and bleeding. When cancerous tissue invades the bile duct at the liver portal, it can cause bile duct bleeding.

Weight loss and fatigue

Liver cancer patients often feel more fatigued than other tumor patients, which is similar to patients with chronic hepatitis. The cause of fatigue is unknown. It may be due to digestive disorders, nutritional absorption disorders leading to insufficient energy, or liver cell damage and decreased liver function, resulting in metabolic disorders, certain toxins cannot be inactivated in time, or due to the release of toxic substances due to liver cancer tissue necrosis. Weight loss is also a common symptom of liver cancer patients, which is due to damaged liver function and decreased digestion and absorption function. As the disease progresses, the degree of weight loss may worsen, and cachexia may occur in severe cases.

Jaundice, ascites, itchy skin

It is a common symptom of liver cancer. About 1/3 of the cases have jaundice during the course of the disease. The cause of jaundice is that the tumor invades the main bile duct in the liver, and the metastatic cancer of the portal lymph nodes compresses the extrahepatic bile duct. Ascites is often caused by the patient's original liver cirrhosis, the invasion of cancer tissue into the vein to form a cancer thrombus, and the compression of the portal vein by cancer nodules. Ascites often accumulates very quickly and can be straw yellow or bloody. Skin itching is a common symptom of patients with liver disease and liver cancer.

Don't panic if you have liver cancer. It is easier to treat in the early stages. In addition, you can enhance the resistance of liver cells through diet in daily life. To enhance the resistance of liver cells, rich vitamins are essential, especially fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K and vitamin C. Vitamin C can promote the regeneration of liver cells and the synthesis of glycogen, improve metabolism and detoxification.

Some liver cancer patients are afraid of eating too much protein and do not have a clear concept of the amount to be taken, so they do not eat, which leads to malnutrition. In fact, the protein intake can be appropriately increased. It is recommended to take 1.0-1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, but do not take too much to avoid increasing the burden on the liver. Choose more high-quality protein, diversify the food, and mix and match to effectively improve the complementary effect of protein.