Cancer causes low albumin (hypoalbuminemia) through multiple mechanisms that damage the liver's ability to produce this essential protein and increase protein loss from the body. Albumin is synthesized exclusively by the liver, so cancer directly interferes with production in several ways. Tumors can metastasize to the liver, replacing functional tissue and reducing the organ's synthetic capacity. Cancer also triggers chronic inflammation throughout the body, and inflammatory cytokines (like IL-6 and TNF-alpha) suppress hepatic albumin synthesis even when the liver isn't directly invaded. Additionally, many cancers cause malnutrition and cachexia—a wasting syndrome where patients lose muscle and fat mass while experiencing poor appetite and malabsorption. Without adequate dietary protein intake, the body lacks raw materials to produce albumin. Cancer can also increase protein loss through several routes: tumors may cause bleeding or protein-losing enteropathy (intestinal protein leakage), and some cancers produce abnormal proteins that interfere with normal protein metabolism. Kidney involvement or damage from chemotherapy can increase urinary protein loss. Finally, cancer cachexia involves accelerated protein breakdown, where the body catabolizes its own proteins faster than they can be replenished, further depleting albumin stores. Low albumin in cancer patients is often a marker of advanced disease, poor nutritional status, and impaired liver function, and it correlates with worse prognosis and treatment outcomes.