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health advisory Hospital Diseases 2007-11-12 20:36:14

Answer:

Signs and symptoms

Roughly, cancer symptoms can be divided into three groups:

1. Local symptoms: unusual lumps or swelling (tumor), hemorrhage (bleeding), pain and/or ulceration. Compression of surrounding tissues may cause symptoms such as jaundice.

2. Symptoms of metastasis (spreading): enlarged lymph nodes, cough and hemoptysis, hepatomegaly (enlarged liver), bone pain, fracture of affected bones and neurological symptoms. Although advanced cancer may cause pain, it is often not the first symptom.

3. Systemic symptoms: weight loss, poor appetite and cachexia (wasting), excessive sweating (night sweats), anemia and specific paraneoplastic phenomena, i.e. specific conditions that are due to an active cancer, such as thrombosis or hormonal changes.

Every single item in the above list can be caused by a variety of conditions (a list of which is referred to as the differential diagnosis). Cancer may be a common or uncommon cause of each item.

Hope this helps!

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depends on the cancer

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which type of cancer? They are way too many to name...

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death is a real indicator. What type of cancer?

Sudden weight loss, sudden weight gain, unexplained fever, any symptom can be an indicator of many many different typed of cancer.

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death

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well it depends suddne weight loss or weight gain. or a bump forming

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Depends where it is; for instance..bleeding nipple may indicate breast cancer BUT**** most cancers, including breast cancer, don't really give you a sign. Most common tumors are there for about eight years before they reach the size to be felt easily. Only way to tell for sure if something is cancer is to have tests. If there is anything unusual about the results, they'll do ultrasound, and, if it's not fluid, they still have to do a biopsy before you know for sure what it is. Hope this is just a curiosity question.

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The most obvious sign would be a visual, such as noticing or seeing an unusual lump or bump where it should not be. Other than that, in many instances cancer is asymptomatic until the advanced stages. The reason why is because healthy people can easily mask 'symptoms' and continue to function well until it is far too obvious that something is wrong. Also cancer symptoms can mimic other types of diseases and conditions. There really are no 'obvious' signs that someone has cancer.