Cancer Awareness: Signs and Symptoms to Look For

Cancer can cause many symptoms, but these symptoms are most often caused by illness, injury, benign tumors, or other problems. If you have symptoms that do not get better after a few weeks, see your doctor so that problems can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible. Often, cancer does not cause pain, so do not wait to feel pain before seeing a doctor. Here are the top 7 cancer symptoms to look out for.

CAUTION

• C - Change in bowel or bladder habits

• A - A sore that does not heal

• U - Unusual bleeding or discharge

• T - Thickening or lump in breast or elsewhere

• I - Indigestion or difficulty in swallowing

• O - Obvious change in wart or mole

• N - Nagging cough or hoarseness

Here are more in-depth common signs and symptoms that may be caused by cancer. However, any of these can be caused by other problems as well.

• Fatigue or extreme tiredness that doesn’t get better with rest.

• Weight loss or gain of 10 pounds or more for no known reason

• Eating problems such as not feeling hungry, belly pain, or nausea and vomiting

• Swelling or lumps anywhere in the body

• Pain, especially new or with no known reason, that doesn’t go away or gets worse

• Skin changes such as a lump that bleeds or turns scaly, a new mole or a change in a mole, a sore that does not heal, or a yellowish color to the skin or eyes (jaundice).

• Cough or hoarseness that does not go away

• Bruising for no known reason

• Change in bowel habits, such as constipation or diarrhea, that doesn’t go away or a change in how your stools look

• Bladder changes such as pain when passing urine, blood in the urine or needing to pass urine more or less often

• Fever or nights sweats

• Headaches

• Vision or hearing problems

• Mouth changes such as sores, bleeding, pain, or numbness

The signs and symptoms listed above are the more common ones seen with cancer, but there are many others that are not listed here. If you notice any major changes in the way your body works or the way you feel – especially if it lasts for a long time or gets worse – let a doctor know. If it has nothing to do with cancer, the doctor can find out more about what’s going on and, if needed, treat it. If it is cancer, you’ll give yourself the chance to have it treated early, when treatment is more successful.

• Source - American Cancer Society