ELDER TIP Older patients may ignore bowel symptoms, believing that they result from constipation, poor diet, or hemorrhoids. Evaluate your older patient's responses to your questions carefully.
On the right side of the colon (which absorbs water and electrolytes), early tumor growth causes no signs of obstruction because the tumor tends to grow along the bowel rather than surround the lumen, and the fecal content in this area is normally liquid. It may, however, cause black, tarry stools; anemia; and abdominal aching, pressure, or dull cramps. As the disease progresses, the patient develops weakness, fatigue, exertional dyspnea, vertigo and, eventually, diarrhea, obstipation, anorexia, weight loss, vomiting, and other signs or symptoms of intestinal obstruction. In addition, a tumor on the right side may be palpable.
On the left side, a tumor causes signs of an obstruction even in early stages because in this area stools are of a formed consistency. It commonly causes rectal bleeding (in many cases ascribed to hemorrhoids), intermittent abdominal fullness or cramping, and rectal pressure. As the disease progresses, the patient develops obstipation, diarrhea, or “ribbon” or pencil-shaped stools. Typically, he notices that passage of stools or flatus relieves the pain. At this stage, bleeding from the colon becomes obvious, with dark or bright red blood in the feces and mucus in or on the stools.
With a rectal tumor, the first symptom is a change in bowel habits, in many cases beginning with an urgent need to defecate on arising (morning diarrhea) or obstipation alternating with diarrhea. Other signs are blood or mucus in stools and a sense of incomplete evacuation. Late in the disease, pain begins as a feeling of rectal fullness that later becomes a dull, and sometimes constant, ache confined to the rectum or sacral region.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Esophageal cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Dysphagia and weight loss are the most common presenting symptoms. Dysphagia is mild and intermittent at first, but it soon becomes constant. Pain, hoarseness, coughing, and esophageal obstruction follow. Cachexia usually develops.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Fallopian tube cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Generally, early stage fallopian tube cancer produces no symptoms. Late-stage disease is characterized by an enlarged abdomen with a palpable mass, amber-colored vaginal discharge, excessive bleeding during menstruation or, at other times, abdominal cramps, frequent urination, bladder pressure, persistent constipation, weight loss, and unilateral colicky pain produced by hydrops tubae profluens. (This last symptom occurs when the abdominal end of the fallopian tube closes, causing the tube to become greatly distended until its accumulated secretions suddenly overflow into the uterus.) Metastasis develops by local extension or by lymphatic spread to the abdominal organs or to the pelvic, aortic, and inguinal lymph nodes. Extra-abdominal metastasis is rare.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Gallbladder and bile duct cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Clinically, gallbladder cancer is almost indistinguishable from cholecystitis — pain in the epigastrium or right upper quadrant, weight loss, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and jaundice. However, chronic, progressively severe pain in an afebrile patient suggests malignancy. In patients with simple gallstones, pain is sporadic. Another telling clue to malignancy is palpable gallbladder (right upper quadrant), with obstructive jaundice. Some patients may also have hepatosplenomegaly.
Progressive profound jaundice is commonly the first sign of obstruction due to extrahepatic bile duct cancer. The jaundice is usually accompanied by chronic pain in the epigastrium or the right upper quadrant, radiating to the back. Other common signs or symptoms, if associated with active cholecystitis, include pruritus, skin excoriations, anorexia, weight loss, chills, and fever.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Gastric cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Early clues to gastric cancer are chronic dyspepsia and epigastric discomfort, followed in later stages by weight loss, anorexia, feeling of fullness after eating, anemia, and fatigue. If the cancer is in the cardia, the first sign or symptom may be dysphagia and, later, vomiting (commonly coffee-ground vomitus). Affected patients may also have blood in their stools.
The course of gastric cancer may be insidious or fulminating. Unfortunately, the patient typically treats himself with antacids or histamine blockers until the symptoms of advanced stages appear.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Kidney cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Kidney cancer produces a classic clinical triad (hematuria, pain, and a palpable mass), but any one may be the first sign of cancer. Microscopic or gross hematuria (which may be intermittent) suggests that the cancer has spread to the renal pelvis. Constant abdominal or flank pain may be dull or, if the cancer causes bleeding or blood clots, acute and colicky. The mass is generally smooth, firm, and nontender. All three signs coexist in only about 10% of patients.
Other signs include fever (perhaps from hemorrhage or necrosis), hypertension (from compression of the renal artery with renal parenchymal ischemia), rapidly progressing hypercalcemia (possibly from ectopic parathyroid hormone production by the tumor), and urine retention. Weight loss, edema in the legs, nausea, and vomiting signal advanced disease.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Laryngeal cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
In intrinsic laryngeal cancer, the dominant and earliest symptom is hoarseness that persists longer than 3 weeks; in extrinsic cancer, it's a lump in the throat or pain or burning in the throat when drinking citrus juice or hot liquid. Later clinical effects of metastasis include dysphagia, dyspnea, cough, enlarged cervical lymph nodes, and pain radiating to the ear.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Liver cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Clinical effects of liver cancer include:
❑a mass in the right upper quadrant
❑ tender, nodular liver on palpation
❑ severe pain in the epigastrium or the right upper quadrant
❑ bruit, hum, or rubbing sound if tumor involves a large part of the liver
❑ weight loss, weakness, anorexia, fever
❑ occasional jaundice or ascites
❑ occasional evidence of metastasis through venous system to lungs, from lymphatics to regional lymph nodes, or by direct invasion of portal veins
❑ dependent edema.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Lung cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Because early-stage lung cancer usually produces no symptoms, this disease is usually in an advanced state at diagnosis. These late-stage symptoms commonly lead to diagnosis:
❑Epidermoid and small cell carcinomas — smoker's cough, hoarseness, wheezing, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and chest pain
❑ Adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma — fever, weakness, weight loss, anorexia, and shoulder pain.
In addition to their obvious interference with respiratory function, lung tumors may also alter the production of hormones that regulate body function or homeostasis. Clinical conditions that result from such changes are known as hormonal paraneoplastic syndromes:
❑ Gynecomastia may result from large cell carcinoma.
❑ Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy (bone and joint pain from cartilage erosion due to abnormal production of growth hormone) may result from large cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.
❑ Cushing's and carcinoid syndromes may result from small cell carcinoma.
❑ Hypercalcemia may result from epidermoid tumors.
Metastatic signs and symptoms vary greatly, depending on the effect of tumors on intrathoracic and distant structures:
❑ bronchial obstruction: hemoptysis, atelectasis, pneumonitis, dyspnea
❑ cervical thoracic sympathetic nerve involvement: miosis, ptosis, exophthalmos, reduced sweating
❑ chest wall invasion: piercing chest pain, increasing dyspnea, severe shoulder pain, radiating down arm
❑ esophageal compression: dysphagia
❑ local lymphatic spread: cough, hemoptysis, stridor, pleural effusion
❑ pericardial involvement: pericardial effusion, tamponade, arrhythmias
❑ phrenic nerve involvement: dyspnea, shoulder pain, unilateral paralyzed diaphragm, with paradoxical motion
❑ recurrent nerve invasion: hoarseness, vocal cord paralysis
❑ vena caval obstruction: venous distention and edema of face, neck, chest, and back.
Distant metastasis may involve any part of the body, most commonly the central nervous system, liver, and bone.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Breast cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Warning signals of breast cancer include:
❑ a lump or mass in the breast (a hard, stony mass is usually malignant)
❑ a change in symmetry or size of the breast
❑ a change in breast skin (thickening, scaly skin around the nipple, dimpling, edema [peau d’orange], or ulceration)
❑ a change in skin temperature (a warm, hot, or pink area; suspect cancer in a non-breast-feeding woman past childbearing age until proven otherwise)
❑ unusual drainage or discharge (a spontaneous discharge of any kind in a non-breast-feeding woman warrants thorough investigation; so does any discharge produced by breast manipulation [greenish black, white, creamy, serous, or bloody]). If a breast-feeding infant rejects one breast, this may suggest possible breast cancer.
❑ a change in the nipple, such as itching, burning, erosion, or retraction
❑ pain (not usually a symptom of breast cancer unless the tumor is advanced, but it should be investigated)
❑ bone metastasis, pathologic bone fractures, and hypercalcemia
❑ edema of the arm.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Spinal neoplasms:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Extramedullary tumors produce symptoms by pressing on nerve roots, the spinal cord, and spinal vessels; intra-medullary tumors, by destroying the parenchyma and compressing adjacent areas. Because intramedullary tumors may extend over several spinal cord segments, their symptoms are more variable than those of extramedullary tumors.
The following clinical effects are likely with all spinal cord neoplasms:
❑ Pain is most severe directly over the tumor, radiates around the trunk or down the limb on the affected side, and is unrelieved by bed rest.
❑ Motor signs and symptoms include asymmetrical spastic muscle weakness, decreased muscle tone, exaggerated reflexes, and a positive Babinski’s sign. If the tumor is at the level of the cauda equina, muscle flaccidity, muscle wasting, weakness, and progressive diminution in tendon reflexes are characteristic.
❑ Sensory deficits include contralateral loss of pain, temperature, and touch sensation (Brown-Séquard’s syndrome). These losses are less obvious to the patient than functional motor changes. Caudal lesions invariably produce paresthesia in the nerve distribution pathway of the involved roots.
❑ Bladder symptoms vary according to the stage of the tumor. Early signs include incomplete emptying or difficulty with the urine stream, which is usually unnoticed or ignored. Urine retention is an inevitable late sign with cord compression. Cauda equina tumors cause bladder and bowel incontinence from flaccid paralysis.
❑ Constipation can also occur.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Bladder cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
In early stages, about 25% of patients with bladder tumors have no symptoms. Commonly, the first sign is gross, painless, intermittent hematuria (often with clots in the urine). Patients with invasive lesions often have suprapubic pain after voiding. Other symptoms include bladder irritability, urinary frequency, nocturia, and dribbling.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Cervical cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Cervical dysplasia produces no symptoms or other apparent changes. Early invasive cervical cancer can cause abnormal vaginal bleeding, persistent vaginal discharge, and postcoital pain and bleeding. In advanced stages, cervical cancer causes pelvic pain, vaginal leakage of urine and stool from a fistula, anorexia, weight loss, and anemia.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Colorectal cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer result from local obstruction and, in later stages, from direct extension to adjacent organs (bladder, prostate, ureters, vagina, sacrum) and distant metastasis (usually to the liver).
In the early stages, signs and symptoms are typically vague and depend on the anatomical location and function of the bowel segment containing the tumor. Later, they generally include pallor, cachexia, ascites, hepatomegaly, and lymphangiectasis.
Cancer on the right side
On the right side of the colon (which absorbs water and electrolytes), early tumor growth causes no signs of obstruction because the tumor tends to grow along the bowel rather than surround the lumen, and the fecal content in this area is normally liquid. It may, however, cause black, tarry stool; anemia; and abdominal aching, pressure, or dull cramps.
As the disease progresses, the patient develops weakness, fatigue, exertional dyspnea, vertigo and, eventually, diarrhea, obstipation, anorexia, weight loss, vomiting, and other signs and symptoms of intestinal obstruction. In addition, a tumor on the right side may be palpable.
Cancer on the left side
On the left side, a tumor causes signs and symptoms of an obstruction even in early stages because in this area, stool is of a formed consistency. It commonly causes rectal bleeding (typically ascribed to hemorrhoids), intermittent abdominal fullness or cramping, and rectal pressure.
As the disease progresses, the patient develops obstipation, diarrhea, or “ribbon” or pencil-shaped stool. Typically, he notices that passage of stool or flatus relieves the pain. At this stage, bleeding from the colon becomes obvious, with dark or bright red blood in the stool and mucus in or on the stool.
Rectal tumor signs
With a rectal tumor, the first indication is a change in bowel habits, often beginning with an urgent need to defecate on arising (“morning diarrhea”) or obstipation alternating with diarrhea. Other indications include blood or mucus in stool and a sense of incomplete evacuation.
Late in the disease, pain begins as a feeling of rectal fullness that later becomes a dull and sometimes constant ache confined to the rectum or sacral region.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Esophageal cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Patients are usually asymptomatic until they’re far advanced in the disease. Dysphagia and weight loss are the most common presenting symptoms. Dysphagia is mild and intermittent at first, but it soon becomes constant. Pain, hoarseness, coughing, and esophageal obstruction follow. Cachexia usually develops.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Gallbladder and bile duct cancers:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Clinically, gallbladder cancer is almost indistinguishable from cholecystitis. The signs and symptoms of both disorders include pain in the epigastrium or right upper quadrant, weight loss, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and jaundice. Chronic, progressively severe pain in an afebrile patient suggests cancer. With simple gallstones, the pain is sporadic.
Another telling clue to cancer is a palpable gallbladder (in the right upper quadrant) with obstructive jaundice. Some patients may also have hepatosplenomegaly.
Signs of bile duct cancer
Progressive, profound jaundice is commonly the first sign of obstruction caused by extrahepatic bile duct cancer. The jaundice is usually accompanied by chronic pain in the epigastrium or right upper quadrant, radiating to the back. Other common symptoms, if associated with active cholecystitis, include pruritus, skin excoriations, anorexia, weight loss, chills, and fever.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Gastric cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Early clues to gastric cancer are chronic dyspepsia and epigastric discomfort, followed in later stages by weight loss, anorexia, a feeling of fullness after eating, anemia, and fatigue. If the cancer is in the cardia, the first symptom may be dysphagia and, later, vomiting (typically coffee-ground vomitus). Affected patients may also have blood in their stools.
The course of gastric cancer may be insidious or fulminating. The patient typically treats himself with antacids until the symptoms of advanced stages appear.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Kidney cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Kidney cancer produces a classic triad of signs and symptoms — hematuria, pain, and a palpable mass — but any one may be the first indication of cancer. Microscopic or gross hematuria (which may be intermittent) suggests that the cancer has spread to the renal pelvis.
Constant abdominal or flank pain may be dull or, if the cancer causes bleeding or blood clots, acute and colicky. The mass is generally smooth, firm, and nontender. All three signs of kidney cancer coexist in only about 10% of patients.
Other signs and symptoms include fever (perhaps from hemorrhage or necrosis), hypertension (from compression of the renal artery with renal parenchymal ischemia), rapidly progressing hypercalcemia (possibly from ectopic parathyroid hormone production by the tumor), and urine retention. Weight loss, edema in the legs, nausea, and vomiting are signs and symptoms of advanced kidney cancer.
CLINICAL TIP: Bone pain or fracture from a metastatic lesion may also be a chief complaint.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Laryngeal cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
With intrinsic laryngeal cancer, the dominant and earliest indication is hoarseness that persists longer than 3 weeks; with extrinsic cancer, it’s a lump in the throat or pain or burning in the throat when drinking citrus juice or hot liquid. Later signs and symptoms of metastasis include dysphagia, dyspnea, cough, enlarged cervical lymph nodes, and pain radiating to the ear.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Liver cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Signs and symptoms of liver cancer include:
❑ a mass in the right upper quadrant
❑ a tender, nodular liver on palpation
❑ severe pain in the epigastrium or the right upper quadrant
❑ a bruit, hum, or rubbing sound if the tumor involves a large part of the liver
❑ weight loss, weakness, anorexia, fever
❑ occasional jaundice or ascites
❑ occasional evidence of metastasis through the venous system to the lungs, from lymphatics to the regional lymph nodes, or by direct invasion of the portal veins
❑ dependent edema.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Lung cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Because early-stage lung cancer usually produces no symptoms, this disease is typically in an advanced state at diagnosis. The following late-stage signs and symptoms commonly lead to a diagnosis:
❑ with epidermoid and small cell carcinomas: smoker’s cough, hoarseness, wheezing, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and chest pain
❑ with adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma: fever, weakness, weight loss, anorexia, and shoulder pain.
Besides their obvious interference with respiratory function, lung tumors may also alter the production of hormones that regulate body function or homeostasis. Clinical conditions that result from such changes are known as hormonal paraneoplastic syndromes:
❑ Gynecomastia may result from large cell carcinoma.
❑ Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy (bone and joint pain from cartilage erosion due to abnormal production of growth hormone) may result from large cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma.
❑ Cushing’s and carcinoid syndromes may result from small cell carcinoma.
❑ Hypercalcemia may result from epidermoid tumors.
Metastatic signs and symptoms vary greatly, depending on the effect of tumors on intrathoracic and distant structures:
❑ bronchial obstruction: hemoptysis, atelectasis, pneumonitis, and dyspnea
❑ recurrent nerve invasion: hoarseness and vocal cord paralysis
❑ chest wall invasion: piercing chest pain; increasing dyspnea; and severe shoulder pain, radiating down the arm
❑ local lymphatic spread: cough, hemoptysis, stridor, and pleural effusion
❑ phrenic nerve involvement: dyspnea; shoulder pain; and unilateral paralyzed diaphragm, with paradoxical motion
❑ esophageal compression: dysphagia
❑ vena caval obstruction: venous distention and edema of the face, neck, chest, or back
❑ pericardial involvement: pericardial effusion, tamponade, and arrhythmias
❑ cervical thoracic sympathetic nerve involvement: miosis, ptosis, exophthalmos, and reduced sweating.
Distant metastasis may involve any part of the body, most commonly the central nervous system, liver, and bone.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Ovarian cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Typically, symptoms vary with the size of the tumor. Occasionally, in the early stages, ovarian cancer causes vague abdominal discomfort, dyspepsia, and other mild GI disturbances. As it progresses, it causes urinary frequency, constipation, pelvic discomfort, abdominal distention, and weight loss.
Tumor rupture, torsion, or infection may cause pain, which, in young patients, may mimic appendicitis. Granulosa cell tumors have feminizing effects (such as bleeding between periods in premenopausal women); conversely, arrhenoblastomas have virilizing effects. Advanced ovarian cancer causes ascites, rarely postmenopausal bleeding and pain, and symptoms relating to metastatic sites (most commonly pleural effusions).
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Pancreatic cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
The most common features of pancreatic cancer are weight loss, anorexia, abdominal or low back pain, jaundice, diarrhea, steatorrhea, fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and bleeding tendencies. If the islets of Langerhans are affected, signs and symptoms of diabetes may be present. (See Types of pancreatic cancer, page 598.)
Other signs and symptoms include fever, skin lesions (usually on the legs), and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, and premonition of fatal illness.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Prostatic cancer:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Manifestations of prostatic cancer appear only in the advanced stages and include signs and symptoms of urinary obstruction, such as difficulty initiating a urinary stream, dribbling, urine retention, unexplained cystitis and, rarely, hematuria.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Article Excerpts About Symptoms of Cancer:
Cancer: NWHIC (Excerpt)
Cancer often causes symptoms that you can watch for. The word "caution"
can remind you of the most common warning signs of cancer:
Change in bowel or bladder
habits
A sore that does not
heal
Unusual bleeding or
discharge
Thickening or lump in the breast or any
other part of the body
Indigestion or difficulty
swallowing
Obvious change in a wart or mole,
or
Nagging cough or hoarseness
These symptoms are not always warning signs of cancer. They can also be
caused by less serious conditions. It is important to see a doctor if you
have any of these symptoms. Only a doctor can make a diagnosis.
Don’t wait to feel pain: Early cancer usually does not cause
pain. (Source: excerpt from Cancer: NWHIC)
Cancer Facts for People Over 50 - Age Page - Health Information: NIA (Excerpt)
You should see your doctor for regular checkups; don't wait for
problems to occur. But you also should know that the following
symptoms may be signs of cancer:
changes in bowel or bladder habits
a sore that does not heal
unusual bleeding or discharge
thickening or lump in the breast or any other part of the body
indigestion or difficulty swallowing
obvious change in a wart or mole
nagging cough or hoarseness
unexplained changes in weight (Source: excerpt from Cancer Facts for People Over 50 - Age Page - Health Information: NIA)
Cancer Facts for People Over 50 - Age Page - Health Information: NIA (Excerpt)
Most cancers in their earliest, most treatable stages don't cause
any symptoms or pain. That is why it's important to have regular
tests to check for cancer long before you might notice anything
wrong. (Source: excerpt from Cancer Facts for People Over 50 - Age Page - Health Information: NIA)
What You Need To Know About Cancer - An Overview: NCI (Excerpt)
Cancer can cause a variety of symptoms. These are some of
them:
-
Thickening or lump in the breast or any other part of the
body
-
Obvious change in a wart or mole
-
A sore that does not heal
-
Nagging cough or hoarseness
-
Changes in bowel or bladder habits
-
Indigestion or difficulty swallowing
-
Unexplained changes in weight
-
Unusual bleeding or discharge
When these or other symptoms occur, they are not
always caused by cancer. They may also be caused by
infections, benign tumors, or other problems. It is important
to see the doctor about any of these symptoms or about other
physical changes. Only a doctor can make a diagnosis. One
should not wait to feel pain: Early cancer usually does
not cause pain. (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Cancer - An Overview: NCI)
Medical articles and books on symptoms:
These general reference articles may be of interest
in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis
About signs and symptoms of Cancer:
The symptom information on this page
attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Cancer.
This signs and symptoms information for Cancer has been gathered from various sources,
may not be fully accurate,
and may not be the full list of Cancer signs or Cancer symptoms.
Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Cancer may vary on an individual basis for each patient.
Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they
are indeed Cancer symptoms.
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