What's going on with the facial swelling in the late stage of liver cancer?

Written by Yan Chun
Oncology
Updated on May 21, 2025
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Patients with advanced liver cancer may experience facial swelling, which can be attributed to the following reasons: Firstly, patients with advanced liver cancer often show significant disease progression and may develop complications associated with hepatorenal syndrome. Clinically, this can manifest as reduced urine output, anuria, and even renal impairment, leading to facial swelling. Secondly, in patients with advanced liver cancer, there may be metastasis to cervical lymph nodes. Enlarged lymph nodes can compress or invade surrounding structures, leading to superior vena cava syndrome. Once this syndrome occurs, patients may experience swelling in the face and neck, and some may even face severe breathing difficulties. Lastly, some patients with advanced liver cancer may experience renal damage due to the toxic side effects of antitumor treatments or medications. Clinically, this can lead to increased levels of blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, reduced urine output, and hypoproteinemia, which may also result in facial swelling.

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Oncology
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Does early-stage liver cancer metastasize?

Patients with early-stage liver cancer generally do not experience metastasis. This is because for patients with early-stage liver cancer, the lesions are localized and have not spread, thus being classified as early-stage. Moreover, the general treatment for patients with early-stage liver cancer involves curative surgery. Since the lesions are localized, in most cases, there will be no recurrence or metastasis after the surgery. Therefore, for early-stage patients, there is no need to administer adjuvant radiotherapy or adjuvant chemotherapy and other anti-tumor treatments after the surgery. However, once the liver cancer lesions invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to distant sites, it indicates that the lesions have spread, and the clinical stage has progressed to mid or late stages, losing the opportunity for curative surgery. Most patients undergo comprehensive treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy which generally results in a reduction in survival time.

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The difference between primary liver cancer and secondary liver cancer

Primary liver cancer, also commonly referred to as liver cancer, originates in the liver itself and is not transferred from other parts of the body. Secondary liver cancer occurs when the primary tumor originates in another location and then metastasizes to the liver, causing hepatic space-occupying lesions; this is referred to as secondary liver cancer. The main difference between the two types is their origin. Additionally, primary liver cancer is often solitary but may develop intrahepatic or distant metastases as the disease progresses. In cases of secondary liver cancer, multiple intrahepatic metastatic lesions may be discovered at the onset. Moreover, primary liver cancer may often display an elevated alpha-fetoprotein tumor marker, whereas this marker might be normal in secondary liver cancer.

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Does early-stage liver cancer cause pain when pressed?

In the early stages of liver cancer, patients generally do not experience pain when pressing on the liver area. Pain in the liver area or a sensation of liver pain typically occurs in the middle or late stages of liver cancer and is a common manifestation. The main reasons for the pain are that the liver cancer lesions are large, causing an increase in liver volume, which leads to a tense pain in the liver capsule. Additionally, the invasion of liver cancer into the liver cells and surrounding tissues can cause pain. Another cause of pain may be abnormal hormone secretion triggered by the lesions, which then stimulates the pain perception centers, resulting in pain. For patients with early-stage liver cancer, the tumors are generally small and usually do not cause noticeable clinical symptoms. In many cases, patients may exhibit non-specific symptoms such as indigestion and mild fatigue. In contrast, patients with middle to late-stage liver cancer often exhibit more clinical manifestations due to the progression of the disease.

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Common symptoms of primary liver cancer

The initial symptoms of primary liver cancer are mostly pain in the liver area, which commonly presents as abdominal pain. Some patients may also experience bloating, fatigue, and weight loss as systemic symptoms. In advanced-stage liver cancer patients, there can be an enlargement of the liver, meaning a palpable enlarged mass can be felt in the abdomen. Other symptoms include jaundice and ascites, which can cause abdominal bloating. Upon physical examination, an obvious increase in abdominal girth and abdominal distension can be noted. Moreover, patients with advanced liver cancer may also suffer from complications such as upper gastrointestinal bleeding, rupture and bleeding of the liver cancer nodules, liver failure, and even hepatic encephalopathy, among others.

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Liver cancer B-ultrasound manifestations

Generally speaking, for diseases of the hepatobiliary system, most of us conduct examinations using ultrasound because it is very convenient, safe, involves no radiation, and the results are relatively quick. Generally, liver cancer can appear as hypoechoic, hyperechoic, or mixed echogenicity on ultrasound. Most such liver cancer nodules may have a complete capsule, but some may not have a complete capsule. Overall, this type of liver cancer tends to grow expansively and invasively, compressing the surrounding normal liver tissue, and possibly showing some halo signs around it. The vast majority of liver cancers do not occur independently; they usually develop gradually from cirrhosis. Therefore, there is often an enlargement of the portal vein, and in some cases of liver cancer with metastasis, thrombosis in the portal vein can be seen.