Cancer presents with a variety of generalised and localised symptoms. General symptoms of cancer include loss of appetite, loss of weight, fatigue, pain, malaise, drowsiness, fever, haemorrhage, anaemia and cachexia. Local symptoms vary in different cancers. There may be dysphagia in oesophageal cancer; cough in lung cancer; abdominal pain in ovarian cancer; bowel obstruction in colorectal cancer; haematuria in bladder cancer; headache in brain tumours; and paralysis in the spinal cord tumours. There are various other local symptoms depending on the site of cancer.
Different cancer institutes all over the world have listed certain warning signals, which indicate the possible onset of a cancer in the body. The seven most common warning signals of cancer that can be remembered by the mnemonic CAUTION are given below:
- C .... Change in the bowel or the bladder habit.
- A .... A sore that does not heal.
- U .... Unusual bleeding or discharge.
- T .... Thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere.
- I .... Indigestion or difficulty in swallowing.
- O .... Obvious change in a wart or a mole.
- N .... Nagging cough or hoarseness of voice.