How to self-diagnose liver cancer 6 common diagnostic methods for liver cancer

Recently, it has become more and more popular to drink white wine first, then red wine, and finally drink beer to rinse your mouth. Medical experts are concerned about this phenomenon of mixing white wine, red wine and beer. Recently, a large number of studies have shown that alcohol is closely related to liver cancer. The chance of liver cancer from drinking mixed drinks is 60 times that of drinking single alcohol or not drinking alcohol.

Health alert! Mixing multiple types of alcohol increases the risk of liver cancer

We all know that alcohol must be detoxified and excreted in the liver. In the liver, 95% of the alcohol is completely broken down, and the remaining 5% is excreted through breathing, urine, and sweat. The liver processes alcohol at a rate of no more than one can of beer per hour. If you drink too much, it will exceed the liver's detoxification limit, causing the liver cells to stagnate in the decomposition and metabolism of fatty acids, causing fat deposition in the liver, and causing fatty liver. Drinking different types of alcohol together will first make us drink too much unconsciously.

In addition, mixing two or more types of alcohol will also show a certain "synergistic effect", which is more harmful to the human body. Take liquor and beer as an example. If you drink them together, because beer contains carbon dioxide and a lot of water, it can promote the high concentration of alcohol in liquor to penetrate the whole body, which is more likely to cause damage to the brain, liver, kidneys, and stomach. And drinking the two together is more likely to make you feel drunk earlier, and the degree of discomfort is significantly greater than drinking one type of alcohol alone, and it is more likely to cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms of poisoning.

It is also not recommended to mix liquors of different degrees and flavors. Don't drink liquors made from different ingredients together. It can also make people drunk quickly, and it is more likely to damage liver cells, impair liver metabolism and cause liver cancer. For health reasons, drink in moderation and don't mix drinks.

The number of patients with liver cancer is increasing, so it is helpful to understand how liver cancer is diagnosed. Liver cancer is mainly diagnosed based on symptoms. We will introduce the specific diagnostic methods of liver cancer in detail below:

Common methods of diagnosing liver cancer

1. Cirrhosis

Liver cancer often occurs on the basis of liver cirrhosis, and it is often difficult to differentiate between the two. Differentiation depends on a detailed medical history, physical examination and laboratory tests. Cirrhosis develops slowly and has recurrences, with more significant liver damage, and a positive serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFp) often indicates cancer.

2. Extrahepatic tumors adjacent to the liver

For example, gastric cancer, upper abdominal high retroperitoneal tumors, kidney, adrenal gland, colon, pancreatic cancer and retroperitoneal tumors are easily confused with primary liver cancer. In addition to the fact that alpha-fetoprotein is mostly negative, which can help to distinguish them, different medical history and clinical manifestations, especially ultrasound, CT, MRI and other imaging examinations, gastrointestinal X-ray examinations, etc. can all make differential diagnosis.

3. Secondary liver cancer

Compared with primary liver cancer, secondary liver cancer develops slowly and has milder symptoms. The most common type of secondary liver cancer is gastric cancer, followed by lung, colon, pancreas, breast, etc. Cancer foci often metastasize to the liver. It often presents as multiple nodular lesions. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFp) tests are generally negative, except for a few cases where the primary cancer is in the digestive tract.

4. Damage to important organs

In important organs, cancer cells invade and directly destroy the normal structure of organs, which can cause organ damage and lead to death. The most important organ is the brain, which contains the respiratory and circulatory centers. If cancer blocks important ducts, it can easily lead to death. Liver cancer causes blockage of the common bile duct, which can cause jaundice, liver function and digestive dysfunction, which is the cause of death.

5. Bleeding

The symptom of advanced liver cancer is bleeding in liver cancer patients. This can be caused by suppression of bone marrow hematopoiesis, thrombocytopenia, or by direct damage of blood vessels by cancer cells or severe infection, leading to rupture of blood vessels. Large amounts of blood loss can cause death of the patient.

Due to low immunity, infectious complications are prone to occur, and the bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. that originally existed in the body and did not cause disease will also take advantage of the situation and aggravate the condition. This infection is often difficult to control and can cause high fever, coma, and death.

6. Metabolic abnormalities

Common symptoms include hypercalcemia, hypoglycemia, and purine and urate metabolism disorders, which can even lead to renal failure and death. Over time, anemia, edema, fatigue, and even extreme hunger-induced malnutrition, also known as cachexia, can occur, and eventually death can occur due to systemic failure.