Sometimes symptoms affect specific areas of the body, such as our tummy or skin. But signs can also be more general, and include weight loss, tiredness (fatigue) or unexplained pain. Some possible signs of cancer, like a lump, are better known than others.
Many people with cancer feel sad. They feel a sense of loss of their health, and the life they had before they learned they had the disease. Even when you're done with treatment, you may still feel sad. This is a common response to any serious illness.
Symptoms of Metastatic Cancer
pain and fractures, when cancer has spread to the bone. headache, seizures, or dizziness, when cancer has spread to the brain. shortness of breath, when cancer has spread to the lung. jaundice or swelling in the belly, when cancer has spread to the liver.
Cancer pain may be mild, moderate or severe. It may take several forms, such as feeling like a sharp stabbing pain that comes and goes, a tingling or burning sensation or a persistent ache. Cancer pain affects your quality of life. It can make certain cancer symptoms and treatment side effects feel worse.
Most cancer pain is caused by the tumour pressing on bones, nerves or other organs in the body. Sometimes pain is due to your cancer treatment. For example, some chemotherapy drugs can cause numbness and tingling in your hands and feet.
Aside from leukemia, most cancers cannot be detected in routine blood work, such as a CBC test. However, specific blood tests are designed to identify tumor markers, which are chemicals and proteins that may be found in the blood in higher quantities than normal when cancer is present.
Lumps or skin thickening on breasts or armpits. Skin changes such as a rash, dimpled skin or skin reddening. Changes to your nipples such as dryness, leaking or inverted nipples.
Persistent lumps or swelling in any part of your body should be taken seriously. This includes any lumps in the neck, armpit, stomach, groin, chest, breast, or testicle.
Fatigue. Lump or area of thickening that can be felt under the skin. Weight changes, including unintended loss or gain. Skin changes, such as yellowing, darkening or redness of the skin, sores that won't heal, or changes to existing moles.
People with cancer might describe it as feeling very weak, listless, drained, or “washed out” that may decrease for a while but then comes back. Some may feel too tired to eat, walk to the bathroom, or even use the TV remote.
Look carefully at your fingernails, palms, forearms (including the undersides), and upper arms. Examine the back, front and sides of your legs. Also look around your genital area and between your buttocks. Sit and closely examine your feet, including toenails, soles and the spaces between your toes.
Radicular pain is nerve pain, which occurs when the cancer is pushing on a nerve in the spine. It can feel like an electric shock going down a limb or around the chest. Sciatica is the most well-known type. Radicular pain can be relieved by treating the tumor to stop it from compressing the nerve causing the pain.
Fatigue may develop as a symptom of blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, because these cancers start in the bone marrow, which produces red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body.
Cancer related fatigue is different from tiredness which is usually short term and you feel better after you stop, sleep or rest. Cancer fatigue doesn't usually go away with sleep or rest. It can be severe and last a long time. Fatigue can last for different amounts of time depending on what's causing it.
Sometimes, a cancer diagnosis comes out of the blue, with no symptoms at all. But more often, there are various symptoms that may be warning signs of the disease.
Physicians should disclose a cancer diagnosis in a personal setting, discussing the diagnosis and treatment options for a substantial period of time whenever possible.
Screening: CT is sometimes used to screen for different types of cancer, such as lung and colorectal cancer. Diagnosis: Your doctor may order a CT scan to locate and size suspected tumors. It also may help determine whether a tumor has recurred.
Ultrasound scans can help doctors: diagnose conditions including a number of different types of cancer.