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Asked by xheneta1 to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 19 Nov 2013.
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Simon Langley-Evans answered on 19 Nov 2013:
That would depend on the cancer. Some cancers show no visible symptoms and unless the patient has a therapy that causes hair loss, you would not know they had the disease.
Skin cancers are obviously visible as they appear as dark patches on the skin, but for other cancers the main visible symptom would be an obvious weight loss. This is due to something called cachexia which is all about the body over-responding to the stress of the disease. Patients can lose several stone in weight and become very emaciated in appearance.
Other cancers, such as the liver, might cause a change in skin colour. Liver cancer may lead to jaundice (yellow skin).
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Susan Skelton answered on 21 Nov 2013:
This depends very much on the cancer. Cancer is not one disease: there are over 200 different cancers that affect humans.
The symptoms depend on the type of cancer. Often, the symptoms will happen in the same place where the cancer is; for example, skin cancer patients can often see the cancer itself on the surface of the skin. Cancers inside the body are more difficult to detect. Sometimes the cancer can be felt inside the body as a lump, for example, in breast cancer.
There can also be more general symptoms common to lots of different types of cancer, such as being very tired, having a high temperature and losing lots of weight.
For some cancers, there are unfortunately very few symptoms. These cancers are more difficult to find and treat early.
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