Liver Cancer Symptoms

Diagnosing Liver Cancer

In diagnosing liver cancer symptoms, it's helpful to understand that there are two very different types of liver cancer.

1. Hepatocellular cancer or carcinoma, also sometimes called hepatoma. This is the type of liver cancer that starts in the liver itself and grows there.
2. Metastatic liver cancer, or liver cancer that starts outside the liver, in another organ, and spreads to the liver.

A liver cancer patient with the first type, hepatocellular carcinoma, often starts to experience liver cancer symptoms after they've had hepatitis and cirrhosis for some time. But a liver cancer patient with no preceding liver problems can get this type of liver cancer too.

The symptoms of hepatocellular cancer are often vague and may mistakenly be attributed to other health problems, but anyone experiencing following should be tested:

• jaundice (yellow skin and eyes and mucus membranes)
• poor appetite
• right upper abdominal pain or discomfort
• weight loss.

Symptoms may also be hard to diagnose because they're similar to gallbladder problems.

The second kind of liver cancer, metastatic liver cancer, most often starts in the breast, lungs, stomach, or large intestine. Leukemia and lymphoma may also involve the liver.

The first symptoms can include

• enlarged liver,
• enlarged spleen, especially if the cancer originated in the pancreas,
• fever,
• poor appetite,
• the liver becomes hard and may be tender and/or lumpy,
• weight loss.

In the beginning, the patient might have mild jaundice, but might not.

After liver cancer has been present for a while, the patient's abdominal cavity may become swollen with fluid, a condition which is called ascites.

In final stage liver cancer, jaundice becomes progressively worse. Also, the person may become confused and drowsy due to toxins that begin to accumulate in the brain. This condition is known as liver encephalopathy.