What are the dangers of bile duct cancer

Cancer is a terrifying disease. As we all know, cancer is extremely difficult to treat and is very easy to metastasize and recur. There are many types of cancer, and malignant tumors can occur in any part of the human body. Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignant tumor, so what are the hazards of cholangiocarcinoma?

In fact, we don’t know much about many diseases, but some diseases cause anxiety in people. Biliary duct cancer is such a disease. Although people know it is serious, their specific harms are still unknown. Let me introduce it to you.

About half of the patients have symptoms such as right upper abdominal pain, distension or discomfort, weight loss, and loss of appetite. These symptoms are often regarded as early warning symptoms of bile duct cancer. At the beginning of abdominal pain, it is similar to cholelithiasis and cholecystitis. According to clinical observation, abdominal pain and jaundice may occur only 3 months after the onset of bile duct cancer.

It may appear before or after the onset of jaundice, and may be accompanied by other symptoms such as tachycardia, bleeding tendency, mental depression, fatigue, steatorrhea, abdominal distension, etc. Skin itching is caused by increased bilirubin content in the blood, which stimulates the peripheral nerves of the skin.

Such as nausea, vomiting, weight loss, dark yellow urine like soy sauce or strong tea, light yellow or even clay-colored stools, etc. When the tumor ruptures in the late stage, bile duct bleeding may occur, with black stools and positive fecal occult blood test, and even anemia may occur; when there is liver metastasis, there may be liver enlargement, cirrhosis and other symptoms.

Few patients present with early metastasis of cholangiocarcinoma, and the disease mainly spreads directly by infiltrating upward and downward along the bile duct wall. The most common metastasis is the lymph node metastasis in the liver hilar region, and lymph node blood metastasis in other parts of the abdominal cavity is also seen. Except for patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma, it is usually rare. Among all parts of cholangiocarcinoma, liver metastasis is the rarest, especially high-positioned cholangiocarcinoma. Cancerous tissue easily invades the portal vein and forms cancerous blood clots, which can cause liver metastasis and also metastasize to adjacent organs such as the pancreas and gallbladder.

It can be seen that the danger of bile duct cancer is not only the cancer itself, but the key is that the early symptoms are not obvious and difficult to detect. Once discovered, it is often in the late stage of bile duct cancer and accompanied by complications, which increases the difficulty of treating bile duct cancer in the late stage. Therefore, early prevention, early detection and early treatment are necessary. Even if diagnosed as late stage, treatment should not be given up. Patients should maintain an optimistic attitude and actively cooperate with the doctor's treatment plan, so as to prolong the patient's life.