What symptoms does a liver cancer cause?
Early on in their growth liver cancers often produce no symptoms. Secondary cancers tend to be found only after the original cancer, elsewhere in the body, is diagnosed. A liver cancer may produce jaundice (a yellow colouring of the skin and eyes), often with a darkening of urine and a pale colour to the stool (bowel motion). This is because the growth of the cancer blocks the drainage of bile from the liver and the bile’s yellow pigment cannot get into the bowel to colour the stool. It then has to be got rid of through the kidneys, hence the dark urine. Other symptoms which may occur are pain over the liver, especially if the cancer is stretching the fibrous coating that surrounds the liver, and weight loss. Very occasionally a liver cancer causes vomiting. This is because the cancer grows out from the liver and pushes on the stomach, blocking the passage of food and liquids. How are liver cancers diagnosed? Apart from hepatomas, there are no specific blood tests for the detection of
