What are the general symptoms of liver cancer? These symptoms indicate that you have liver cancer

The prognosis of malignant tumors depends first on whether they can be detected early and treated actively. However, liver cancer is prone to misdiagnosis in the early stages due to its insidious onset and lack of obvious symptoms. Once symptoms such as upper abdominal distension, significant increase in liver volume, pain in the liver area, and weight loss appear, it is usually in the late stage and the best time for treatment has been missed.

In addition, some symptoms and signs of liver cancer lack specificity and are easily confused with other diseases. Sometimes, some rare "paraneoplastic syndromes" may occur. If we do not know enough about them, misdiagnosis is more likely to occur, leading to adverse consequences and medical disputes. Therefore, we should be vigilant against the following misdiagnoses and strive to see through the various "disguises" of liver cancer in time and recognize its true face.

fever

Liver cancer is prone to cancer fever, which is often intermittent, without chills or shivering, and lasts for a long time. Occasionally, there is a persistent high fever without obvious symptoms of septicemia. This type of cancer fever is sensitive to antipyretics such as indomethacin, naproxen, and corticosteroids, but the fever will recur after stopping the drug. It is easy to misdiagnose as tuberculosis, typhoid infection, and connective tissue disease, thus delaying the correct diagnosis. The principle of cancer fever may be due to pyrogens or tumor necrosis factors produced by the cancer tissue itself or infiltrating white blood cells. But on the other hand, diagnosis must also exclude infection.

Cirrhosis

Primary liver cancer often occurs on the basis of liver cirrhosis. According to statistics, at least 80% of liver cancers are accompanied by liver cirrhosis, and about 15% to 75% of liver cancers are eventually caused by liver cirrhosis. Therefore, patients with liver cirrhosis, especially those infected with hepatitis B and C viruses, should be highly vigilant about the occurrence of liver cancer and should undergo regular related examinations. In addition, when hospitals admit patients with liver cirrhosis and upper gastrointestinal bleeding, doctors often focus on hemostasis measures and prevention of hepatic coma, while ignoring the liver cancer (especially diffuse liver cancer) that may already exist in the patient, resulting in misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis.

acute abdomen

About 10% of liver cancer patients die from ruptured hemorrhage of the cancerous mass, which can be caused by external force or spontaneous rupture. If it is confined to the liver capsule, severe right upper abdominal pain will occur. If it ruptures into the abdominal cavity, acute abdomen symptoms will occur. In addition, spontaneous peritonitis is prone to occur in mid- and late-stage liver cancer, which is also very easy to misdiagnose.

diarrhea

Some liver cancer patients have mainly diarrhea as their digestive tract symptom, which is easily misdiagnosed as chronic enteritis or malabsorption syndrome. Diarrhea can also be the first symptom of liver cancer. According to statistics, among 3,254 liver cancer patients, 5.8% had diarrhea as their first symptom.

Spontaneous hypoglycemia

This is the most common paraneoplastic syndrome in patients with liver cancer, with an incidence of 10% to 30% (17.4% according to the Shanghai Liver Cancer Research Institute). It is easy to misdiagnose when liver cancer is not detected. The main cause of this syndrome may be related to the ectopic production of insulin by liver cancer cells. Severe cases of this syndrome may cause coma, shock and death.

Polycythemia

This is also a common paraneoplastic syndrome in liver cancer, with an incidence of about 11%. It may be related to the production of erythropoietin by liver cancer cells and is often misdiagnosed as a blood disease.

Bone pain

It is caused by liver cancer bone metastasis, which can be single or multiple, often involving vertebrae, ribs, long bones of limbs, etc. It is worth noting that bone pain can be the first symptom of patients with primary liver cancer and is often misdiagnosed as other bone and joint diseases. The incidence of liver cancer bone pain is 3% to 12%, but autopsy finds that the incidence of bone metastasis can reach 20%.

Benign intrahepatic space-occupying lesions

For example, for cavernous hemangioma, fatty liver, and hepatic cysticercosis, the main reason for misdiagnosis is the ultrasound operator's misjudgment of the intrahepatic sonogram. Sometimes CT may also lead to misdiagnosis. For example, one patient was diagnosed with fatty liver after both ultrasound and CT enhanced scans, but when he went to the hospital for treatment again 10 months later, he was already diagnosed with advanced liver cancer.

Related reading: Five diseases that resemble cancer

Brain tumor and transient cerebral ischemia

Both diseases have symptoms such as headache, dizziness, staggering, and inability to move hands and feet freely. Transient ischemic attack is mostly caused by arteriosclerosis, and the incidence rate is higher in patients with hyperlipidemia and diabetes. When the neck is bent forward, the brain feels oppressive or painful, which is generally caused by brain tumor, cerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage. In critical situations, there is a risk of sudden death, so you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment immediately.

Laryngeal cancer and laryngeal polyps

One cancer that smokers must be aware of is laryngeal cancer. Its early symptom is hoarseness. However, karaoke, which is very popular nowadays, can also cause laryngeal polyps if you sing too much, and it is difficult for the patient to distinguish. People often go to the doctor because of hoarseness, but most of them are laryngeal polyps, laryngitis and other diseases.

If you have a hoarse voice for a week or two, you should go to the ENT department for a checkup. The doctor can tell whether it is laryngeal cancer by listening to the sound and observing the inside of the throat with a laryngeal endoscope. Round swelling on the vocal cords is laryngeal polyps, while jagged edges of the vocal cords are cancer. Some people think that it must be painful to put a laryngeal endoscope into the throat. In fact, this endoscope is a very thin and soft tube. It only takes about 5 minutes to complete the examination, and it is almost painless.

There is a type of laryngeal cancer that most patients experience symptoms such as hoarseness, which is difficult to detect. It occurs near the entrance of the esophagus and is called hypopharyngeal cancer. Some people also feel a blockage or choking sensation in their throat when eating or drinking. Most of these symptoms are caused by hypertrophy of the base of the tongue tonsils, which is common in middle-aged people.

Lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, and focal pneumonia

Early lung cancer can be detected by examining lung shadows and cancer cells in sputum, but if the lesion is smaller than 1 cm, it is very difficult to distinguish it from tuberculosis or focal pneumonia.

Progressive cancer can be diagnosed based on the results of X-rays or CT scans, but lesions smaller than 1 cm are very difficult for doctors to detect. Japanese hospitals use a machine called spiral CT to detect shadows of about 0.5 cm in the lungs. Currently, this technology has also been developed in my country.

Esophageal cancer and esophagitis Generally speaking, both diseases can be examined by gastroscopy. Early esophageal cancer has no symptoms and is difficult to distinguish from esophagitis, atypical epithelial diseases, etc. If a thin layer of Lugol solution (concentrated sulfur solution, oral anti-inflammatory agent) is sprayed on the mouth during gastroscopy, the normal esophagus will be dyed yellow, while cancer or atypical epithelium will not appear yellow. Then, the stained tissue can be taken out to easily identify whether it is esophageal cancer or not.

Gastric cancer and gastric ulcer

It is difficult to distinguish between non-early stage gastric cancer and gastric ulcer, gastritis, gastric erosion and other diseases. Patients who have been diagnosed with gastric ulcer, gastritis and have not responded to treatment should be examined as soon as possible. Because the part with gastritis may become cancerous; it may appear to be a gastric ulcer, but there may be cancer cells in the depression of the stomach; if it is found to be gastric cancer, it will be in the late stage if barium meal radiography is performed.

Many people mistake blood in their stools for hemorrhoids. Some people have symptoms, but no abnormalities are found in stool occult blood tests. By the time they are found, it is already the advanced stage of cancer. Because it is difficult to distinguish between these two diseases, you must go to the hospital for diagnosis when you have doubts.

Some people are reluctant to go to the hospital for a colonoscopy because of the pain and shame. Another method is an X-ray examination, called an enema examination, in which barium is injected from the anus to fill the intestine before an X-ray is taken.

Liver cancer and hepatitis Most patients with liver cancer have a history of hepatitis B, C or cirrhosis. Therefore, the above patients should undergo regular ultrasound examinations and CT examinations to detect the disease as early as possible. At the same time, blood tests should be performed to see if a substance called alpha-fetoprotein (AFp) that only appears when cancer occurs can be found. However, blood tests alone cannot confirm cancer, and ultrasound and other examinations must be used to confirm the diagnosis.

Breast cancer and breast patients all believe that "it's too late when symptoms appear", but many people are saved by discovering lumps during self-examination and receiving timely treatment.

The most common method for breast cancer examination is palpation, which has been used for a long time. After touching the lump in the breast, the diagnosis is made through ultrasound examination and mammography that reflects the breast tissue. In addition, even if there is no lump in the breast, but there is abnormal discharge or bleeding in the nipple, the possibility of breast cancer is also very high.

Cervical cancer and cervical erosion

Cervical cancer and hemorrhagic cervical erosion can be distinguished by the following method: use a cotton swab to take some cells from the surface of the cervix for testing. If cancer cells are found, it can be diagnosed as cervical cancer.

When the possibility of cervical cancer is high, a microscopic colposcopy is performed, which means inserting a colposcope into the vagina and taking out tissue from the suspicious area for testing to confirm the diagnosis. Uterine body cancer grows deeper than cervical cancer. To distinguish it from cervicitis, a longer cotton swab is needed to reach deeper to take cells for testing. For patients with little abdominal fat, uterine body cancer can be detected by abdominal ultrasound.