What are the symptoms of liver cancer? 6 symptoms of liver cancer to know

Liver cancer refers to a malignant tumor that occurs in the liver, including primary liver cancer and metastatic liver cancer. Do you know what the symptoms of liver cancer are?

Many people are afraid of cancer. In fact, there is no need to be so afraid. As long as you understand the early symptoms of cancer, you can quickly get rid of the troubles of this disease. Let us take a look at the early symptoms of liver cancer.

What is Liver Cancer

Liver cancer is a cancerous disease that occurs in the liver. Liver cancer is one of the malignant tumors, second only to gastric cancer and esophageal cancer. The early symptoms of liver cancer are not obvious. Liver cancer seriously threatens human health and life. The mortality rate of liver cancer is called the king of cancer. What are the early symptoms of liver cancer? Knowing the early symptoms of liver cancer plays an important role in preventing liver cancer.

The onset of liver cancer is often hidden, and liver cancer is often discovered accidentally during liver disease follow-up or physical examinations using AFp and B-type ultrasound. At this time, the patient has no symptoms, and physical examinations also lack signs of the tumor itself. This stage is called the subclinical stage. Once liver cancer symptoms appear, the patient who comes to the doctor is mostly in the middle and late stages of the disease.

Early symptoms of liver cancer

1. Common symptoms include loss of appetite and upper abdominal distension after meals. Or belching, vomiting, indigestion, nausea, etc. are common digestive symptoms of liver cancer, among which loss of appetite and abdominal distension are the most common. Diarrhea is also a common digestive symptom of liver cancer, which is easily mistaken for enteritis and ignored.

2. Hepatomegaly: Adults over 30 years old may feel a mass in the right upper abdomen and upper abdomen. The mass is hard and uneven, and the mass increases significantly with continuous observation. However, if the patient does not feel any obvious discomfort, liver cancer should be suspected. When liver cancer develops to a certain extent, it will gradually produce symptoms such as pain in the liver area, loss of appetite, fatigue, and weight loss. In the late stage, there will be jaundice, ascites, hematemesis, coma, etc. Huge swelling can often be felt in the upper abdomen of liver cancer patients, but at this time, it is already in the middle and late stages, and has even metastasized to the lungs.

3. Weight loss and fatigue: Unexplained weight loss is a common symptom of liver cancer patients due to liver damage and decreased digestion and absorption function. It often occurs in the middle and late stages of liver cancer. It may be caused by changes in the body's biochemical metabolism caused by tumor metabolites and reduced food intake. Cachexia may occur in severe cases.

4. Upper abdominal swelling, early symptoms of liver cancer include dry mouth, irritability, insomnia, gum and nose bleeding in the liver area.

5. Pain in joints all over the body, especially in the waist and back, accompanied by anorexia, irritability, discomfort in the liver area, and poor response to anti-rheumatic treatment.

6. Indigestion, diarrhea, abdominal distension are repeatedly associated with gastroenteritis, the treatment effect is invisible, incurable and the area of ​​​​weight loss gradually becomes dull.

Liver cancer screening methods

1. The most commonly used examination is liver ultrasound. Ultrasound examination is a non-invasive examination and has no adverse effects on human tissues. It is simple to operate, intuitive and accurate, low-cost, convenient and non-invasive, and widely popular. It can be used for the screening of liver cancer and follow-up after treatment.

2. CT has become an important routine means of diagnosing liver cancer. Abdominal enhanced CT scans can clearly show the size, number, shape, location, boundary, tumor blood supply, and relationship with the intrahepatic ducts of liver cancer, which is important for further clarifying the diagnosis and distinguishing it from other benign liver lesions. At the same time, it is also important to clarify the staging and grading of liver cancer, which is important for guiding treatment and judging prognosis. Image analysis software can also be used to reconstruct the various ducts in the liver, accurately track the course of blood vessels in each liver segment, the relationship between tumors and blood vessels, simulate the surgical resection plane, and calculate the volume of the pre-resected tumor and the remaining liver volume, greatly improving the safety of the operation.

3. Liver-specific MRI can improve the detection rate of small liver cancer. It is also helpful for differentiating liver cancer from focal hyperplastic nodules and hepatic adenomas, and can serve as an important supplement to CT examinations.

4. pET (positron emission tomography)-CT whole-body scan can understand the overall condition and evaluate tumor metastasis, and can more comprehensively determine the tumor stage and prognosis, but it is relatively expensive and is generally not used as the first choice.

5. Selective hepatic artery angiography is an invasive examination. Since liver cancer is rich in blood supply, mainly supplied by the hepatic artery, hepatic artery angiography can clearly show the blood supply of small liver lesions and tumors. After a clear diagnosis, iodized oil can be injected to block the tumor supply vessels to achieve the purpose of treatment. It is suitable for patients who have not been diagnosed after other examinations. Patients with hepatitis B and C should have regular checkups, and if possible, they should have annual physical examinations. Liver B-ultrasound is the most basic examination.