What are the harms of bile duct cancer to the body

What are the harms of bile duct cancer to the body? Because the early symptoms of bile duct cancer are relatively hidden and difficult to detect, they are easily ignored and misdiagnosed, thus losing the best time for treatment, which makes its harm more serious. So, what are the harms of bile duct cancer to the body? Let's take a look.

1. About 50% of patients have symptoms such as right upper abdominal pain, distension or discomfort, weight loss, and loss of appetite. These symptoms are often regarded as early warning symptoms of bile duct cancer. At the beginning of abdominal pain, it is similar to cholelithiasis and cholecystitis. According to clinical observation, abdominal pain and jaundice may occur only 3 months after the onset of bile duct cancer.

2. It may appear before or after the onset of jaundice, and may also be accompanied by other symptoms such as tachycardia, bleeding tendency, mental depression, fatigue, steatorrhea, abdominal distension, etc. Skin itching is caused by increased bilirubin content in the blood, which stimulates the peripheral nerves of the skin. Such as nausea, vomiting, weight loss, dark yellow urine, such as soy sauce or strong tea, light yellow stool or even clay color, etc.

3. When the tumor ruptures in the late stage, bile duct bleeding may occur, black stools, positive fecal occult blood test, and even anemia. When there is liver metastasis, liver enlargement and cirrhosis may occur. Few patients show metastasis in the early stage of bile duct cancer, and it mainly spreads directly by infiltration upward and downward along the bile duct wall.

4. The most common is liver hilar lymph node metastasis, and lymph node blood metastasis in other parts of the abdominal cavity is also seen. Except for patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma, it is usually rare. Among all parts of cholangiocarcinoma, liver metastasis is the rarest, especially high-positioned cholangiocarcinoma. Cancerous tissue easily invades the portal vein and forms cancerous blood clots, which will cause liver metastasis and also metastasis to adjacent organs such as the pancreas and gallbladder.

It can be seen that the danger of bile duct cancer is not just the cancer itself. The key lies in the fact that the early symptoms are not obvious and difficult to detect. Once discovered, it is often in the late stage of bile duct cancer and will be accompanied by complications, which increases the difficulty of treating late-stage bile duct cancer. Therefore, early prevention, early detection, and early treatment are necessary.