What are the common symptoms of early liver cancer? The seven deadly sins that lead to liver cancer

Liver cancer refers to malignant tumors that occur in the liver, including primary liver cancer and metastatic liver cancer. When people talk about liver cancer, they are mostly referring to primary liver cancer. Primary liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in clinical practice. According to the latest statistics, there are about 600,000 new liver cancer patients in the world each year, ranking fifth among malignant tumors. Primary liver cancer can be divided into hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma and mixed liver cancer according to cell type.

Liver cancer is a common cancer in my country. Some common symptoms of liver cancer require some liver disease patients to pay more attention.

1. Pain in the liver area

The vast majority of patients with advanced liver cancer present with pain in the liver area as the first symptom, with an incidence rate of over 50%. Pain in the liver area is generally located in the right ribs or under the xiphoid process, and the pain is intermittent or persistent. It is dull or stabbing. Before the pain, the patient may feel discomfort in the right upper abdomen, which may be mild or severe or relieve itself in the short term. The main cause of the pain is the rapid enlargement of the tumor, which compresses the liver capsule and produces pulling pain. It can also be caused by the necrosis of the tumor irritating the liver capsule.

A small number of patients experience severe pain in the liver area spontaneously or suddenly after liver puncture, which is mostly caused by ruptured and bleeding cancerous nodules on the surface of the liver. If accompanied by a drop in blood pressure and shock, and bloody fluid is found in abdominal puncture, it means that the cancerous nodules are severely ruptured and bleeding. In this case, emergency rescue is required. If there are no associated symptoms and the pain is more limited, it means that the bleeding is under the liver capsule. The pain may vary depending on the location of the tumor. Tumors located in the left lobe often cause pain in the upper and middle abdomen; tumors located in the right lobe cause pain in the right hypochondrium; when the tumor involves the diaphragm, the pain radiates to the right shoulder or right back, which can be easily mistaken for shoulder arthritis; when the tumor is located in the posterior segment of the right lobe, it can sometimes cause low back pain; patients with tumors located deep in the liver parenchyma generally rarely feel pain.

2. Digestive tract symptoms

Decreased appetite and upper abdominal fullness after meals. Flatulence, indigestion, and nausea are common digestive tract symptoms of liver cancer, among which loss of appetite and abdominal distension are the most common. Diarrhea is also a common digestive tract symptom of liver cancer, which has been reported both at home and abroad. The incidence is high and it is easily 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, flatulence, and nausea.

3. 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.

4. 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 caused by 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.

5. Bleeding tendency

Liver cancer patients often have bleeding gums, subcutaneous ecchymoses and other bleeding tendencies, which are mainly caused by impaired liver function and abnormal coagulation function. It is especially common in patients with liver cancer and cirrhosis. Gastrointestinal bleeding is more common, mainly due to portal hypertension leading to esophageal varices. In fact, gastrointestinal bleeding is also the main cause of death in liver cancer patients.

6. Lower limb edema

Patients with liver cancer and ascites often have lower limb edema, which may occur at the ankle in mild cases and spread to the entire lower limb in severe cases. Clinically, some patients have been seen with severe lower limb edema, with fluid oozing out of the thigh skin. The main cause of lower limb edema is ascites compressing the lower limb veins or cancer thrombus blocking them, which obstructs venous return. Mild edema can also be caused by low plasma albumin.

7. Acute abdomen

Rupture of cancerous nodules usually causes pain in the liver area. During physical examination, there is obvious tenderness in the liver area, which is a symptom of liver capsule irritation. After the rupture of cancerous nodules, some patients experience acute abdominal pain accompanied by peritoneal irritation symptoms, which can be easily misdiagnosed as acute peritonitis. Abdominal pain caused by rupture of cancerous nodules is usually accompanied by a drop in blood pressure or even shock, which is different from general acute peritonitis.

There are seven deadly sins that lead to liver cancer

1. Water pollution:

Severe pollution of drinking water is one of the important causes of liver cancer, especially polluted ditch water, followed by river water, and well water is the lowest. Therefore, in villages without tap water facilities, drinking well water should be encouraged.

2. Viral hepatitis:

It is mainly caused by hepatitis B and C virus infection, especially hepatitis B and hepatitis B virus carriers, whose incidence of primary liver cancer is 2 to 100 times higher than that of normal people. In areas with a high incidence of liver cancer, about 20% of people may be hepatitis B or hepatitis B virus carriers.

3. Aflatoxin (AFT):

Aflatoxin B is the most important carcinogen. It is suitable for growing and reproducing in high temperature and high humidity climates, especially in summer, when moldy food, grains, and feed are most likely to be contaminated by Aspergillus flavus and produce aflatoxin. Long-term consumption of food containing this toxin can induce liver cancer.

4. Chemical carcinogens:

The chemical substances that can cause liver cancer are mainly N-nitroso compounds, such as nitrosamines and nitrosamides, etc. In addition, pesticides, alcohol, safrole, etc. can also induce liver cancer.

5. Gene mutation:

Others believe that mutagens and viruses in the environment stimulate the activation of liver cell division response pathways, causing point mutations and gene translocations in cells, which are possible factors that accelerate the proliferation of cancer cells.

6. Immune status:

Some people believe that the plasma of liver cancer patients contains a blocking factor that can inhibit *433dfdc900e9b916be620c7b68feb120* and protect liver cancer cells from being killed by immune cells. Studies have shown that alpha-fetoprotein (AFp) can inhibit the phagocytosis of lymphocytes and macrophages.

7. Complex factors:

Overnutrition (macronutrients) or nutritional deficiency (such as vitamin A, B1 deficiency), hemochromatosis, parasitic infection and heredity are also risk factors for liver cancer.

How does liver cancer metastasize?

Primary liver cancer is a disease that metastasizes relatively quickly. By the time liver cancer is diagnosed, it has often already metastasized. At this time, the treatment effect is often not very good, and the patient's quality of life also decreases.

1. Hematogenous metastasis: Intrahepatic hematogenous metastasis occurs earliest and is the most common. It can invade the portal vein and form tumor thrombi. Tumor thrombi that fall off in the liver can cause multiple metastatic lesions. Tumor thrombi that block the main trunk of the portal vein can cause portal hypertension and refractory ascites. After invading the hepatic vein, liver cancer cells can enter the systemic circulation and metastasize outside the liver. The lung metastasis rate is the highest. It can also metastasize to various parts of the body through the blood, and is more common in organs such as the adrenal glands, bones, kidneys, and brain. Hematogenous metastasis is common in hepatocellular carcinoma.

2. Lymphatic metastasis: Local metastasis to the hepatic hilar lymph nodes is the most common, and it can also metastasize to the supraclavicular, para-aortic, pancreatic, splenic and other lymph nodes. Lymphatic metastasis is the most common metastasis of cholangiocarcinoma. Lymphatic metastasis only accounts for 12.6% of the total metastasis.

3. Implantation metastasis: It occurs occasionally, such as implantation in the retroperitoneum to form bloody ascites. Women may also have ovarian metastatic cancer.

4. Direct infiltration: Liver cancer generally rarely directly infiltrates adjacent organs, but occasionally it can directly spread and infiltrate adjacent tissues and organs, such as the diaphragm, stomach, colon, omentum, etc.

In summary, I believe that everyone has a certain understanding of some basic symptoms of liver cancer. People should take precautions against liver cancer in advance. Here, experts also remind liver cancer patients and their families that what they need to do is to understand the reasons why patients have psychological problems. Carefully analyze the reasons for patients' psychological problems, provide psychological comfort, adjust patients' mentality in time, and provide life guidance; for optimistic patients, provide rehabilitation guidance, pay attention to psychological changes, so as to find problems and solve them in time. In addition, nurses must also have skilled nursing skills and good psychological qualities to make patients feel psychologically satisfied and happy.