Liver cancer is a cancer that begins in the cells of your liver. Your liver is a football-sized organ that sits in the upper right portion of your abdomen, beneath your diaphragm and above your stomach.
The liver performs many other important functions, such as removing toxins and other chemical waste products from the blood and readying them for excretion.
At the early stages, most of people don’t have liver cancer symptoms and signs. As the cancer is going advance, the symptoms could appear more rapidly and they may include:
1. Pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen
People with liver cancer sometimes feel a dull pain and vague discomfort in the upper abdomen. Pain can sometimes also be felt in the right shoulder.
2. Jaundice
If the bile duct becomes blocked by the tumor, it will cause jaundice. This liver cancer symptom will make the whites of the eyes and skin turning yellow. Other signs of jaundice are pale stools and dark-colored urine.
3. Weight loss
Sure, losing weight does not mean that you have liver. But if there is no cleas explanation for your weight loss, you should see your doctor. Expert usually defines significant weight loss as more than 10% of your total body weight.
4. Liver swollen
If the cancer do blockage of either the inferior vena cava or the hepatic veins, it results in a massive formation of ascites and very swollen liver. In some patients, the tumor can metastasize to the portal vein and caused to the rupture of esophageal varices.
5. Other symptoms
Other common liver cancer symptoms will appear as the liver cancer grows or metastasized may include:
- Loss of appetite
- Itching
- Feeling bloated or full after eating
- Sweating and fever
