Liver cancer - signs and symptoms

Liver cancer is a serious ailment leading the patient to death in a short period of time. Malignant formations arise in the hepatic lobes and often affect the bile ducts. Early diagnosis of the disease is of decisive importance in the treatment of liver cancer. In this regard, special knowledge acquires knowledge of the main signs and symptoms of liver cancer.

Liver cancer - symptoms of disease

Recognition of the first signs of liver cancer at an early stage is possible, if with attention refers to one's own health, to perceive and correctly interpret the signals that our own body gives. Among the first signs of liver cancer should be noted first:

• fast fatigue;
• decreased efficiency;
• general weakness.

At the same time, physiological changes in the organ in the early stages of cancer are absent, as well as the capacity of the liver is practically the same as normal. It is for these reasons that the diagnosis of pathology is difficult, and malignant liver disease is most often detected accidentally when examining a patient with suspected other diseases. Specialists strongly recommend that a preventive examination be conducted at least once a year. This council is more concerned with people at risk:

• patients with hepatitis and cirrhosis ;
• patients with alcohol and drug dependence;
• people suffering from diabetes.

In addition, an annual preventive examination is mandatory organized for workers involved in hazardous production.

In the future, in the absence of adequate therapy, the growth of malignancy occurs, the signs of liver cancer become more pronounced. In this case, there are such manifestations as:

• feeling of heaviness in the abdomen;
• constant dull pain in the right anterior part of the forehead, giving to the lumbar region;
• indigestion (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, flatulence);
• loss of appetite;
• sharp weight loss;
• low-grade fever;
• an increase in the diseased organ;
• edema;
• jaundice;
• nasal bleeding.

As the disease develops, intra-abdominal currents and endocrine disorders occur. Dermal telangiectasies in the form of a vascular network and asterisks are possible. At the last stage, metastases spread throughout the body with blood flow. This indicates that the patient is doomed.

Methods for diagnosing liver cancer

Several methods have been developed to detect malignant tumors in the liver:

1. An experienced physician can determine the disease even with visual examination based on palpation of the abdomen and pathogenesis (descriptions of the sensations made by the patient himself).
2. If you notice signs and symptoms of liver cancer, you need to do a blood test. The alarm signal is an increased level of bilirubin and urobilin.
3. The study of the liver with the help of ultrasound can identify such characteristic signs of cancer as an increase in the size and density of the organ, presence of heterogeneity in tissues.
4. Thanks to computed tomography with a contrast agent, the degree of damage to the diseased organ and blood vessels located in the immediate vicinity of the liver is determined.
5. Malignant formation can be detected during the passage of magnetic resonance imaging.
6. The most accurate diagnostic method, according to experts, remains a biopsy - the sampling and study of a tissue sample with suspicion of malignant changes in the liver tissues.