Neurological symptoms

Neurological symptoms can also occur as a result of liver cancer. The missing metabolic function of the liver is the decisive basis for the development of the symptoms. Depending on the progression of the loss of function of the liver, the so-called liver cirrhosis, various neurological symptoms can occur.

At the beginning, the disease manifests itself only through drowsiness, lack of concentration, mood swings and speech disorders. With increasing loss of liver function, these symptoms slowly worsen and lead to severe confusion, unconsciousness, movement disorders and even comatose cloudiness. The neurological symptoms are particularly pronounced if the affected person regularly drank large amounts of alcohol before his or her liver cancer and has thus already disrupted his or her liver and metabolic function.

Confusion can occur in the context of liver cancer. However, this is a symptom of the late phase and does not occur in every patient. The cause of confusion is also not primarily the cancer in the liver, but the liver function destroyed by the cancer.

Among many other metabolic processes, detoxification of the body is one of the most important functions of the liver. Liver cancer damages the liver to such an extent that it can no longer perform this function and substances toxic to the brain accumulate in the body. First and foremost, ammonia is one of the most important metabolic products in this respect, as it is highly neurotoxic and therefore has to be excreted by the liver at almost 100%. If ammonia remains in high doses in the body for a long time, it causes severe damage to the brain, which initially manifests itself in confusion and can even lead to coma.

The thrombosis

In all cancers there is an increased risk of thrombosis.Thromboses are small blood clots that block the bloodstream and can lead to severe circulatory problems and, in the worst case, after a delay, can cause a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. The risk of developing thrombosis is even greater in the case of liver cancer than in other forms of cancer, since the factor that the liver produces blood clotting factors under normal conditions also comes into play here. If liver function is lost due to cancer, the clotting factors can no longer be produced sufficiently in the liver. This leads to an imbalance in blood-inhibiting and blood-promoting factors and thus to an increased tendency to bleed as well as to blood clots and thromboses.