What are the symptoms of liver cancer

How much do you know about liver cancer? Are you worried after suffering from liver cancer? According to surveys, many patients miss the best time to treat liver cancer because they know little about liver cancer and do not pay enough attention to it.

The onset of liver cancer is relatively hidden. Early liver cancer generally has no symptoms. When patients show obvious clinical symptoms, the disease is often in the middle and late stages. The typical symptoms of liver cancer are pain in the liver area, followed by a mass in the upper abdomen. Poor appetite, fatigue, weight loss, unexplained fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, right shoulder pain, etc. The following mainly introduces some common symptoms of liver cancer.

Pain in the liver area

The vast majority of patients with advanced liver cancer present with pain in the liver area as the first symptom, with an incidence rate of over 50%. Pain in the liver area is generally located in the right rib or under the xiphoid process, and the pain is intermittent or persistent. It is dull or stabbing, and the patient may feel discomfort in the right upper abdomen for a period of time before the pain. The pain may be mild or severe or relieve itself in the short term. The main cause of the pain is the rapid enlargement of the tumor, which compresses the liver capsule and produces traction pain. It may also be caused by the necrosis of the tumor irritating the liver capsule. A small number of patients experience severe pain in the liver area spontaneously or suddenly after liver puncture, mostly due to rupture and bleeding of cancerous nodules on the surface of the liver. If accompanied by a drop in blood pressure and shock, and bloody fluid is found in the abdominal puncture, it means that the cancerous nodules are severely ruptured and bleeding. In this case, emergency rescue is required. If there are no associated symptoms and the pain is more limited, it means that the bleeding is under the liver capsule. The pain may vary depending on the location of the tumor. Tumors located in the left lobe often cause pain in the upper and middle abdomen; tumors located in the right lobe cause pain in the right hypochondrium; when the tumor involves the diaphragm, the pain radiates to the right shoulder or right back, which can easily be mistaken for shoulder arthritis; when the tumor is located in the posterior segment of the right lobe, it can sometimes cause low back pain; those with tumors located deep in the liver parenchyma generally rarely feel pain.

Gastrointestinal symptoms

Loss of appetite, upper abdominal fullness after meals, and nausea are common digestive tract symptoms of liver cancer, among which loss of appetite and abdominal distension are the most common. Diarrhea is also a common digestive tract symptom of liver cancer, with a high incidence rate, which can be easily mistaken for chronic enteritis. Portal hypertension and intestinal dysfunction caused by portal vein or hepatic vein cancer thrombus can cause abdominal distension and increased bowel movements. Abdominal distension can also be caused by ascites. Gastrointestinal dysfunction can also lead to symptoms such as indigestion, flatulence, and nausea.

fever

A considerable number of liver cancer patients will experience sweating and fever. Most fevers are low to moderate, and a few patients may have high fevers, above 39°C, generally not accompanied by chills. The fever of liver cancer is mostly cancerous fever, which is caused by the release of pyrogens into the blood circulation after tumor tissue necrosis. Tumor patients are prone to infection due to low resistance, and may also have fever, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from cancerous fever of liver cancer. It is necessary to combine blood counts and observe whether antibacterial treatment is effective to make a judgment.

Weight loss and fatigue

Liver cancer patients often feel more fatigued than other tumor patients, which is similar to patients with chronic hepatitis. The cause of fatigue is unknown. It may be due to digestive disorders, nutritional absorption disorders leading to insufficient energy, or liver cell damage and decreased liver function, resulting in metabolic disorders, certain toxins cannot be inactivated in time, or due to the release of toxic substances due to liver cancer tissue necrosis. Weight loss is also a common symptom of liver cancer patients, which is caused by damaged liver function and decreased digestion and absorption function. As the disease progresses, the degree of weight loss may worsen, and cachexia may occur in severe cases.

Lower limb edema

Patients with liver cancer and ascites often have lower limb edema, which may occur at the ankles in mild cases and spread to the entire lower limbs in severe cases. Clinically, some patients have been seen with severe lower limb edema, with fluid seeping out of the thigh skin. The main cause of lower limb edema is ascites compressing the lower limb veins or cancer thrombus blocking them, which obstructs venous return. Mild edema can also be caused by low plasma albumin. Bleeding tendency

Liver cancer patients often have bleeding gums, subcutaneous ecchymoses and other bleeding tendencies, which are mainly caused by impaired liver function and abnormal coagulation function. It is especially common in patients with liver cancer and cirrhosis. Gastrointestinal bleeding is more common, mainly due to portal hypertension leading to esophageal varices. In fact, gastrointestinal bleeding is also the main cause of death in liver cancer patients.

We should always pay attention to the causes of liver cancer and make preparations for liver cancer prevention and health care. I hope the causes of liver cancer mentioned above will be helpful to you.