Liver cancer often appears silently

Only tired, long-term loss of appetite and weight loss, until severe pain in the ribs with jaundice, came to the hospital, Ms. An in District 3, HCMC, suddenly received the result of liver cancer. late paragraph.

Liver of people with cancer and people who do not have the disease. Photo: clinic.com

Severe shock after hearing the news, despite hospitalization, but the mental crisis led to loss of sleep, the body was exhausted, Ms. An passed away three months later and left two young children.

Also suffering from liver cancer stage 3, but Mr. Ha in Kien Giang, Ms. Thuy in Dong Nai, did not even feel tired of eating or having any unusual symptoms until he got yellow skin, belly. swelling and pain under the ribs.

" The pain only happened two weeks before I was admitted to the hospital. The doctors said there was a tumor in the liver. I was completely surprised and felt depressed. My life time is only counted by day. "Ms. Thuy said.

At oncology specialty hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, most cases of liver cancer have similar circumstances. Many cases of hospitalization for less than 30 days have passed away.

Doctor Nguyen Dinh Song Huy, Head of the Department of Hepatology of Cho Ray Hospital, said that every day, in about 10 cases of cancer found by this hospital, most of them fall into the stage of severe disease. The cause is Dr. Huy, because liver cancer at the onset of symptoms usually has no symptoms.

"A small number of patients have discovered accidental illnesses from regular health checkups. The majority, when it comes to the hospital, are too severe. Some people find liver cancer to survive only a few more months." Huy said.

Further explanation of the late detection of the disease, Dr. Huy added, with small tumors, located in a position difficult to detect, patients often have no symptoms, until the tumor grows to stretch the membrane. If you have a liver, you will feel pain. At that time u may have spread to other organs, obstructing the bile duct, causing stomach pain, poor eating, fatigue, weight loss, jaundice, edema .

Mr. Dao Van Long, Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Digestive Sciences also said that every year there are about 10,000 new cases of liver cancer, most of them detect the disease at the end stage. Because the disease is less manifest and difficult to diagnose, Mr. Long said that vaccination against viral hepatitis, being cautious in sex, reducing alcohol, being careful with foods that are moldy are Effective measures to reduce the risk of disease.

According to Mr. Long, although not absolutely accurate, the screening of ultrasound and periodic testing is really necessary to help doctors find suspicious factors.

Affirming that it is difficult to have effective interventions when the disease is already in the final stage , Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, Mr. Pham Xuan Dung, also said that prevention is a key issue.

" The chemotherapy, radiotherapy or even the method of using the target drug (choking blood vessels for cancer cells) only prolonged the life but could not cure the disease, " Dung said.

Particularly on the problem of disease screening through periodic health examination, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Song Huy said that high liver enzymes, hepatitis B infection . are signs of risk that can lead to liver cancer. However, these signs are not necessarily cancer, because high liver enzymes are caused by many different causes. Even if you have B or C virus, you may not have liver cancer.

" When the test results show the risk factors, patients need to go to a specialist to have intensive tests to determine the disease, before panic and insomnia ," he said. Huy said.