Joint project with
. This link opens in a new tab.
Symptoms of Liver Cancer
Reading time: 1 min
Liver cancer is a silent tumour that only causes symptoms when it is in an advanced stage and will probably no longer respond to treatments with a curative intent. Therefore, patients at risk of developing liver cancer should be enrolled in early diagnosis screening programmes based around a six-monthly abdominal ultrasound.
The most common symptoms of liver cancer are:
Tiredness. Tiredness is a typical symptom in patients with chronic liver disease, consequently a sudden worsening of this symptom is cause to suspect the presence of a liver tumour.
Increase in abdominal girth. Liver cancer can be associated with abdominal fluid retention (called ascites) that manifests as an increase in abdominal circumference.
Jaundice. In advanced stages, patients often develop a yellow discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes.
Abdominal pain. Only the liver’s surrounding capsule has sensitive nerve endings, which means that as long as tumour growth is limited to inside the liver, it rarely causes any pain. However, when it penetrates outside the capsule or the abnormal growth causes distension, patients will generally notice a constant, low-intensity abdominal pain.
Loss of appetite and weight loss. These symptoms are indicative of an advanced tumour.
Joint project with
. This link opens in a new tab.
We are sorry, we are working to improve PortalCLÍNIC. Help us become better, tell us why
Thanks for your help!
An error has occurred and we were unable to send your opinion, please try again later.
Substantiated information by:
Alejandro Forner González
Jordi Bruix Tudo
María Reig Monzón
Neus Llarch Alfonso
Published: 13 May 2020
Updated: 13 May 2020
Subscribe
Receive the latest updates related to this content.
Thank you for subscribing!
If this is the first time you subscribe you will receive a confirmation email, check your inbox
An error occurred and we were unable to send your data, please try again later.
