Liver Cancer: Common symptoms you should know
Liver Cancer: Common symptoms you should know
Liver Cancer refers to the abnormal growth of cells in the liver. There are two types of Liver Cancer: Primary Liver Cancer & Secondary Liver Cancer. Primary liver cancer is where the cancer starts in the liver. This can be further divided into Hepatocellular carcinoma and Cholangiocarcinoma
Liver cancer tends to manifest at a later stage because of lack of symptoms in early stages. However, some general symptoms a patient with Primary Liver Cancer may experience are:
Secondary metastatic liver cancer is where the cancer spreads to the liver from another part of the body.
Like Primary Cancer, small tumours in the liver, once the cancer has spread to the organ, may not produce substantial symptoms. However, the following symptoms might be noticed once the cancer spreads:
- Fatigue
- Severe pain in the upper right side of abdomen or swelling in the region
- Loss of appetite
- unexplained weight loss
- Itchy skin
- Fever
- Nausea
- Weight loss
- Jaundice
In advanced stages the patient’s symptoms may often be vague, with symptoms like anorexia, nausea, lethargy and weight loss.
Less than one percent of the affected patients may also suffer from paraneoplastic syndrome – a group of rare disorders that develop in cancer patients. These may affect the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, endocrine, hematologic, renal and gastrointestinal systems.