What are the symptoms of liver cancer? Introduction to radiotherapy for liver cancer

Liver cancer is a common disease in life, but most people do not have a deep understanding of this disease. So what are the symptoms of liver cancer? In daily life, many people will encounter liver cancer, which will also bring pain to patients and friends, and directly infringe on the health of their livers. Friends should have a thorough understanding of the symptoms of liver cancer, and must be careful to prevent the occurrence of liver cancer. Let's take a look at the main manifestations of liver cancer. Symptoms of liver cancer: 1. Enlarged liver. About 90% of the above-mentioned liver cancer patients have enlarged livers, and they are progressively enlarged, with hard texture, uneven appearance, nodules or lumps of varying sizes, blunt and uneven edges, and often different degrees of tenderness. When liver cancer protrudes under the right costal arch or xiphoid process, the upper abdomen may show local bulge or fullness. If the tumor is located on the diaphragmatic surface, the main manifestation is that the diaphragm is elevated and the lower edge of the liver may not be enlarged. Because the arteries of liver cancer are rich and tortuous, or because the huge tumor compresses the hepatic artery or abdominal aorta, the inner diameter of the artery suddenly narrows. Sometimes, a blowing-like vascular murmur can be heard on the abdominal wall close to the tumor. 2. Systemic manifestations of malignant tumors. Liver cancer patients have progressive weight loss, fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, malnutrition and cachexia. A few patients with liver disease may have special systemic manifestations, called paraneoplastic syndrome, with hypoglycemia and polycythemia being more common, and other rare ones include hypercalcemia, hyperlipidemia, carcinoid, etc. Signs of cirrhosis. Liver cancer patients with portal hypertension of cirrhosis may have splenomegaly, ascites, and venous collateral circulation. Ascites increases very quickly, usually as transudate. Bloody ascites is mostly caused by tumor invasion of the liver capsule or rupture into the abdominal cavity, and occasionally caused by peritoneal metastasis. 3. Pain in the liver area. Half of the above-mentioned patients with advanced liver cancer have pain in the liver area. The pain is equivalent to the location of the tumor, and it is mostly a continuous distending pain or dull pain. Liver pain is caused by the rapid growth of the tumor and the traction of the liver capsule. If the lesion invades the diaphragm, the pain may involve the right shoulder. When the cancerous nodule ruptures, it may suddenly cause severe pain and symptoms and signs of peritonitis. If the amount of bleeding is large, it will cause syncope and shock. Symptoms of metastasis, such as metastasis to the lungs, bones, chest cavity, etc., may produce corresponding symptoms. Chest cavity metastasis is more common on the right side, and there may be signs of pleural effusion. Bone or spinal metastasis may have local tenderness or symptoms of nerve compression, and intracranial metastatic cancer may have nerve localization signs. Introduction to radiotherapy for liver cancer: 1. Indications for radiotherapy for liver cancer: patients with small tumors and localized tumors that cannot be operated on; patients with good liver function, no jaundice and ascites, and no cirrhosis, can be given radical radiotherapy. In addition, there will be no extrahepatic metastatic lesions, and the general condition is good and can tolerate radiotherapy. Postoperative radiotherapy can be given if there is residual tumor after surgery or after interventional treatment. 2. Local radiotherapy: Use Ap-pA irradiation field in supine position or add wedge plate for lateral field. Then use large field including 2cm~3cm outside the tumor edge. After 30Gy of radiotherapy, reduce the irradiation field to the local tumor, and increase the irradiation to a total dose of 50Gy~55Gy/5 weeks~6 weeks. The single dose depends on the size of the irradiation field, generally 1.5Gy~2.0Gy. 3. Whole liver irradiation: Suitable for diffuse and massive lesions, generally irradiation area>200cm2, mostly using whole liver partition irradiation, and also using moving strip irradiation method. Whole liver irradiation 1.5Gy per day. After the total amount of 25Gy~30Gy of the whole liver, reduce the irradiation field, and the tumor site dose is 50Gy~55Gy/6 weeks~7 weeks. 4. Stereotactic radiotherapy: 3DCRT is suitable for liver cancer cases that cannot be surgically removed, especially liver cancer with venous cancer thrombus. According to the volume of the tumor, 1 to 3 targets and 5 to 10 non-coplanar irradiation fields are set to accurately depict the target area, and the angle of incidence of the ray is selected to adapt to the tumor, so that more than 90% of the isodose curve covers 90% of the lesion volume. Each irradiation is 6Gy~8Gy, once every other day, and the total dose of the target area is 30Gy~45Gy. After reading the above content, friends have a clear understanding of the symptoms of liver cancer. Liver cancer will frequently appear around us, which will bring very serious harm to the patient's health. Therefore, we should guard against the occurrence of liver cancer, especially to understand the symptoms of liver cancer clearly, and especially to prevent liver cancer.