What are the early symptoms of liver cancer? If you have these symptoms, it may be liver pain

The liver is an extremely important organ in our body, which performs a variety of functions, such as metabolism, secretion, detoxification, blood, etc. Liver cancer is a malignant tumor occurring in the liver, which can be divided into primary and secondary types. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a major subtype of primary liver cancer, accounting for 90% of primary liver cancer. It is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, with high recurrence and metastasis rates, and low 5-year survival rate after surgery. Therefore, it is very necessary for us to understand its clinical manifestations and examination methods. Let's talk about it below.

Since cancer has a relatively long development process, not just liver cancer, the early symptoms of many cancers are not obvious or even have no special symptoms. Therefore, patients often think that they have just got a minor illness and it will go away. With this idea in mind, they often wait until liver cancer develops to a more serious stage before they realize that they have liver cancer. Although many patients often find that they have liver cancer in the late stage, there are actually some clinical manifestations of early or mid-stage liver cancer that should be taken seriously.

For example, in the early stages of liver cancer, patients may only experience some symptoms similar to those of chronic hepatitis, without any obvious discomfort. However, some patients may complain of stomach pain, or “liver pain”, physical weakness, weight loss, or abdominal distension. Some patients may interpret this as indigestion and take some digestive medicine to solve the problem, thus delaying the treatment. It is worth noting that although the clinical manifestations of liver cancer are very similar to those of chronic liver disease, some clinical manifestations of liver cancer are not common in common liver diseases, such as diarrhea, which is not common in chronic liver disease but is a very common symptom in hepatocellular carcinoma and can provide a reference [1].

There are publications summarizing the clinical symptoms and signs of hepatocellular carcinoma in different regions. Looking at China alone, the most common symptoms are liver enlargement and abdominal pain. There is also a certain probability of ascites and jaundice. Statistics show that the possibility of diarrhea, fever, and hemoperitoneum is relatively low. This is somewhat inconsistent with some references. Therefore, we can only use it as a reference. However, hepatocellular carcinoma is typically latent in the early stage, with basically no obvious symptoms. Symptoms may not appear in the advanced stage. Usually, when obvious symptoms appear (such as obvious liver pain, ascites, hematemesis, severe diarrhea and fatigue), the tumor has developed to a certain stage and may have invaded organs or tissues adjacent to the liver. The early latent nature of liver cancer is also one of the characteristics that makes us very helpless [2].

Since the symptoms of liver cancer in the early and advanced stages are not obvious, having appropriate diagnostic methods may be one of the effective ways to rule out liver cancer. So what are the diagnostic methods for liver cancer?

Unfortunately, early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is difficult and mainly relies on imaging and serum tests, especially serum markers to avoid subjectivity and have high sensitivity, which becomes a breakthrough. For example, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a traditional serum marker for liver cancer. Some studies have pointed out that its sensitivity and specificity are limited, but its wide applicability and signifi cance are still undeniable.

Of course, some new serum markers have emerged later and have good diagnostic value, such as alpha-fetoprotein isoforms, heat shock protein 90, Golgi protein 73, des-γ-carboxy-prothrombin, fibroblast growth factor 19, phosphatidylinositol proteoglycan 3, midkine, methyltransferase-like 3, collagen 24A1, osteopontin, neoplastic tumor cells, etc. Of course, with the development of genomics and molecular biology, some serum markers at the genetic level have also begun to be used for liver cancer diagnosis, such as circulating exosomal NcRNA, circulating tumor DNA, circular DNA, etc. Multiple serum markers can be combined for joint diagnosis, thereby improving the early diagnosis of liver cancer [3]. From the imaging aspect, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and radionuclide imaging all have certain diagnostic value for liver cancer and are very commonly used. For example, ultrasound is effective, economical, non-invasive, and has a high accuracy (especially for mid- and late-stage cancer, up to 70%-82%). Computerized cross-sectional tomography (CT) can clearly show the location, spread, morphology, and blood flow changes of liver cancer lesions, which is conducive to radiotherapy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has significant advantages such as high diagnostic accuracy (87.76%), no need for contrast agents, high resolution, and more information displayed. Therefore, it has a tendency to surpass CT in the diagnosis of liver cancer. Radionuclide imaging was the earliest application in liver cancer imaging. The PET-CT developed by it has the advantages of good specificity, high sensitivity, high accuracy, precise positioning, and comprehensive information. Therefore, it has obvious advantages in the early detection and diagnosis of liver cancer, and is also effective in the staging of liver cancer and finding lesions [4].

In general, the early symptoms of liver cancer are not obvious and diagnosis is somewhat difficult. Therefore, we must pay attention to maintaining healthy living habits in our daily lives, develop good habits of regular physical examinations and cancer screening, and prevent problems before they occur. I wish everyone can enjoy a healthy life!

References

[1] Bi Minggang. Diarrhea is a common symptom of hepatocellular carcinoma[J]. Clinical Collection, 1991(10).

[2] WYLan. Hepatocellular carcinoma[M]. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2009: 75-80.

[3] Zhu Mingyu, Chen Jie, Zhang Xinxin. Research progress on serological markers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma[J]. Journal of Clinical Hepatobiliary Diseases, 2014, 30(10): 3.

[4] Quan Ziwei, Tao Qiang. Research progress in imaging examination methods for liver cancer[J]. Journal of Medical Research, 2013, 42(9): 4.