As cancer grows in your body, it can affect you in several ways. The cancer can:
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Push on nearby tissue and cause pain or block an important body function
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Give off substances that interfere with other organs (called paraneoplastic syndromes)
For example, having a tumor near your bladder (the organ that holds your urine) can block your urine from coming out. Cancer inside your bones causes bone pain.
What are the symptoms of cancer?
Symptoms vary depending on the kind of cancer. Some cancers won't show symptoms until they have grown a lot. Others show symptoms at an early stage. Symptoms of cancer may include:
Pain
Bleeding and blood clots
Cancer may cause bleeding inside your body, depending on where your cancer is located:
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Cancer in your digestive tract can cause blood in your stool (poop)
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Cancer in your urinary tract can cause blood in your urine
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Cancer in your lungs can make you cough up blood
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Cancer near a major artery can cause a hole in the artery that will bleed severely
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Cancer in the bone marrow (the hollow insides of your bones, where blood cells are made) can stop your body from producing the cells that make blood clot
In advanced cancer, severe bleeding may cause death.
Many types of cancer increase the risk that you will develop blood clots in the veins in your legs. Blood clots in your leg veins sometimes break off and travel to a lung and block blood flow. This can cause serious difficulty breathing and sometimes death.
Weight loss and feeling weak
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You may lose weight and become very thin
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Food may make you feel sick to your stomach or you may have trouble swallowing
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If you have anemia, you may feel very weak and tired as your cancer grows
