The symptoms or complaints listed below should be known to all patients as “warning signs”. The patient should consult his or her physician if any of the symptoms listed below are present.
General symptoms
- Weight loss* (unintentional weight loss of >10% of body weight within 6 months).
- Fatigue
- Drop in performance
- Anemia (anemia)
- Dizziness or tachycardia (heartbeat too fast: > 100 beats per minute).
- Fever (> 38 °C)* , possibly night sweats* (night sweats).
- Chronic pain of unclear origin
- Lymphadenopathy (lymph node enlargement) in the neck, axillary region, groin, etc.
* B-symptomatics
Head, brain and nerves
- Headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting (intracranial pressure!).
- Visual disturbances
- New onset headache
- New-onset epilepsy (seizures)
- Neurological disorders such as paralysis, speech and coordination disorders or new onset clumsiness.
- Personality changes
- Thyroid enlargement
Lung
- Dyspnea (shortness of breath) – possibly also heart-related.
- Irritative cough
- Hoarseness (dysphonia)
- Coughing up blood (hematopnea, hemoptysis)
Esophagus and gastrointestinal tract.
- Anorexia (loss of appetite) or aversion to meat.
- Dysphagia
- Blood in the stool (hematochezia; melena, tarry stools).
- Alternation of constipation (constipation) and diarrhea (diarrhea).
- Unusual and persistent changes in digestive habits:
- Heartburn
- Persistent feeling of pressure or fullness
- Abdominal pain
- Meteorism (flatulence)
- Persistent belching or vomiting
Skin
- Noticeable changes in the skin such as nevi (moles), moles and warts in terms of their size, shape and color, also jaundice, blotchy red palms or liver asterisks (spidery dilated veins in the skin).
- Not or poorly healing wounds (chronic wound).
- Palpable swelling, induration or nodules noted on the skin, mucosa or soft tissues – often without pain sensation
- Pruritus (itching)
Kidney, urinary bladder and urethra
- Disorders of micturition (disorders of bladder emptying).
- Dysuria (pain during urination).
- Stranguria (unsuppressible urge to urinate with pain).
- Macrohematuria (blood in the urine)
Other
Gender-specific symptoms – male
- Weak or interrupted urine flow
- Bladder emptying problems at the beginning of urination
- Hardening or enlargement of a testicle
- Hematospermia (blood in the seminal fluid).
Gender symptoms – female
- Nodes / hardening of the breast
- Fluid secretion from the nipples, brownish/bloody.
- Cycle or bleeding disorders (frequency; intermenstrual bleeding).
- Bleeding in or after menopause
- Vaginal discharge, brownish / bloody
- Bleeding from the vagina after intercourse
