Symptoms and rising cases: Liver cancer warning signs

There are many causes of liver cancer—one of them is alcohol consumption. Obesity and smoking also significantly increase the risk. In the early stages, the disease can be difficult to detect, so it's important to pay attention to certain signals that may indicate its development.

According to information from the British organization Cancer Research UK, which promotes cancer awareness and supports research in this field, one of the more obvious symptoms of liver cancer can be visible changes in the abdominal area. Importantly, there are a few very characteristic symptoms.

The presence of cancer can be indicated by various symptoms, from chronic abdominal pain, bloating or ascites to the appearance of a lump or swelling on the right side of the abdomen. This is often accompanied by a loss of appetite or a quick feeling of fullness. The changes are, therefore, both visible and noticeable.

These symptoms may also accompany pain in the right shoulder because the liver can affect the nerves leading to the shoulder. This information may be surprising to many.

However, these are not the only reasons to suspect the potential development of cancer. Other encountered symptoms of liver cancer include:

• weight loss,
• jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes,
• persistent fatigue,
• itching of the skin (itching is sometimes the first noticeable symptom in a patient!).

When such symptoms occur, it is recommended to check bilirubin levels in the blood as soon as possible. This test is practically performed from one day to the next. The normal range for adults is 0.2 mg/dl to 1.1 mg/dl, and exceeding it can indicate various ailments, including liver cancer.

Data from the National Cancer Registry indicate that in Poland in 2020, approximately 1,300 cases of liver cancer were recorded, and nearly 2,200 people died from this disease. Prevention is always crucial in the context of treatment. Early detection of cancer is key, leading to a much better prognosis—the five-year survival rate can be as high as 90% for patients whose tumour does not exceed 2 cm in diameter. In this context, a quick response is extremely important for recovery.

Hepatitis C (HCV) is also a significant threat to many people. Untreated, the disease can lead to both liver cirrhosis and cancer, and the scale of the problem is large.