Cancer diagnosis can be done by the following methods such as laboratory diagnosis and clinical diagnosis such as the features or pictures of the cancers such as it is symptoms which means what the patient complaining and by it is signs which means what the doctor see or notice in the patient by the general and local examination of the whole body of the patient
what are the symptoms and signs of malignancy
Malignancy or cancer it is a neoplasm or tumor which can be represented by the following criteria
Local features of the tumours
Distant clinical features
Systemic or general clinical features
Local features of the neoplasm or tumours
This cancer can be present either in the form of mass the patient complaining from abnormal something in his body like mass he felt it by his hand or the patient may complaining from pain which it is very rare in case of malignancy in the site of the tumor or the patient may complaining from change in the function of the organ which have the malignancy such as cancer intestine the patient may come with obstructive manifestations such as inability to pass stool,abdominal distension,bleeding from rectum and may be vomiting
So that the local features of the cancer can be divided as follow
mass, pain,changes in organ function obstruction in a hollow viscus,bleeding or infarction
Mass
• Mass may be palpable
• Mass may be a primary tumour or lymph nodes enlarged or secondary lymphadenopathy
• Mass may be painful or more commonly, painless (eg breast lump, testicular lump cancer most commonly come without pain and very rare to become painful such as in some certain conditions
• May cause a mass effect
Compression of surrounding structures such as cancer thyroid may compress on the trachea and esophagus o Raised ICP in intracranial lesions
Pain
What are the causes of pain in cancer
The pain in case of cancer may be a feature of
• Local mass compression on other structures or nerves
• Capsular stretch eg hepatic, renal carcinoma may stretch the capsule overlying these organs producing pain
• Infiltration of regional nerves by the tumou or cancer cells which produce neurological pain
• Obstruction of a hollow lumen any structures have a lumen such as intestine,colon,rectum,esophagus,larynx and pharynx the cancer can causes obstruction of the lumen of these structures because the tumor occupying the lumen by itself may causes pain
• Metastasis cancer spread to other organs such as the bone can produce bone pain which may be severe boring pain and may not respond to usual analgesia and may need for narcotic to relieve it
Changes in organ function
The cancer can produce changes in the function of that organ have a cancer such as when cancer spread or metastasis to the liver produce jaundice which mean yellowish discolouration of the sclera of the eye and skin of the patient and ascitis which mean accumluation of the fluid inside the abdominal cavity and the patient may complaining from abdominal distension or the cancer spread to the lungs and the patient complaining from shortening of breathing and pleural effusion which mean accumulation of malignant fluid in the pleural cavity or the cancer spread to the brain and the patient may complaining from headache blurring of vision and neurological deficits or to the bone and the patient may complaining from bone pain as above or from repeated bone fractures or pathological fractures
Obstruction in a hollow viscus
• The cancer may arising from inside the lumen of the structures( intraluminally) (eg embolism of tumour invading large vessel
• The cancer may arising from the vessel or lumen wall (eg annular circumferential rectal tumour
• The cancer may arising extraluminally (eg peritoneal deposits obstructing ureters
Bleeding
The cancer may causes bleeding which may be due to
May be effect of local tumour ulceration eg rectal carcinoma
May be result of erosion into large vessel eg gastric cancer
Acute bleed into tumour mass may provoke pain eg hepatoma
Infarction torsion and infarction of ovarian masses
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