Early symptoms Liver cancer is usually asymptomatic or atypical in the early stage, and there may be gastrointestinal symptoms such as loss of appetite, abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Typical performances are:
Pain in liver area: mostly persistent dull pain, swelling pain or tingling in the right upper abdomen or middle upper abdomen, and the symptoms are aggravated at night or after fatigue.
Symptoms of digestive tract: loss of appetite, bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. , due to the lack of specificity and easy to be ignored.
Fever: 37.5℃-38℃ in most cases, and 39℃ in some cases. Its characteristic is that antibiotics are often ineffective, and oral indomethacin can often reduce fever.
Examination revealed that the patient had hepatomegaly, jaundice and ascites.
Other symptoms of liver cancer include fever, varicose abdominal veins and abnormal bruising or bleeding. In addition, patients with liver cancer will cause a series of endocrine or metabolic abnormalities due to their own metabolism and cancer tissue, also known as carcinoid syndrome, which mainly includes:
Hypercalcemia: can cause nausea, insanity, constipation, weakness or muscle problems;
Hypoglycemia: can lead to fatigue or fainting; Polycythemia; Hyperlipidemia.
Once liver cancer is diagnosed, it should be treated immediately. Generally speaking, there are the following treatment methods:
General treatment and antiviral treatment: For patients with liver cancer complicated with hepatitis B virus infection and active replication, oral antiviral treatment with nucleoside (acid) analogues is very important. Antiviral therapy for these patients can reduce the postoperative recurrence rate and should run through the whole process of liver cancer treatment.
Liver protection treatment: Liver cancer patients may be accompanied by abnormal liver function. Liver protection drugs should be used in time to protect liver function, improve treatment safety, reduce complications and improve quality of life.
Symptomatic support treatment: including controlling blood sugar in diabetic patients; Treatment of ascites, jaundice, hepatic encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding and other accompanying symptoms; Active analgesia, anemia correction, hypoalbuminemia correction and nutritional support for patients with advanced liver cancer.
Targeted drugs for drug therapy: These drugs are used to treat liver cancer with specific receptors in cancer cells, mainly including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) antagonists. Sorafenib was once the only molecular targeted drug approved for the treatment of advanced liver cancer in China. By 20 18, the targeted drug Ranvartinib was also approved for the treatment of advanced liver cancer in China, providing a new choice for patients with liver cancer.
Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy for liver cancer mainly includes immunomodulators, immune checkpoint inhibitors, tumor vaccines and cellular immunotherapy. Although these treatments have certain anti-tumor effects, more research and verification are needed before they are used in clinic.
Surgical treatment of liver cancer surgical treatment is the most important means for patients to obtain long-term survival, mainly including hepatectomy and liver transplantation.
Hepatectomy: It is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the general situation and liver function reserve of patients before operation, and only patients who meet the surgical indications can undergo hepatectomy. These evaluations are conducted by doctors according to the individual situation of patients, and the introduction here is only for patients and their families to understand.
Liver transplantation: Liver transplantation is one of the radical treatments for liver cancer. However, the recurrence and metastasis of tumor after operation affect the curative effect of liver transplantation. The main factors affecting the curative effect after operation are: tumor size and number, tumor thrombus invading large and micro vessels, lymph node metastasis and preoperative alpha-fetoprotein level.
The indications of liver transplantation here are the same as the surgical indications mentioned above, which need to be individually evaluated and judged by professional doctors.
Radiotherapy can be used as a comprehensive treatment mainly for patients whose tumors have not metastasized and are not suitable for surgical resection, or patients who still have residual cancer or recurrence after surgical resection.
Traditional chemotherapy drugs, including adriamycin, epirubicin, fluorouracil, cisplatin, mitomycin, etc., are not ideal for treating liver cancer alone or in combination, and have great toxic and side effects. Oxaliplatin is a new chemotherapy drug, which is superior to traditional chemotherapy drugs in efficacy, tolerance and safety, and has been approved for the treatment of liver cancer in China. Arsenic trioxide has a certain alleviation effect, so we should pay attention to monitoring the hepatorenal toxicity in clinical application.
Once you find any discomfort, you should immediately go to the hospital for examination, listen to the doctor's arrangement and actively cooperate with the treatment. Finally, I wish everyone good health!
(The picture comes from the Internet. )