Liver Cancer

An Overview of Liver Cancer

The liver’s functions include filtering out harmful substances in blood, storing nutrients, converting fats to energy, and helping the blood to clot.

The two types of cancerous liver tumours are primary and metastatic, or secondary.

Liver cancer occurs when cells in the liver become malignant, or cancerous.

Metastatic liver cancer is much more common than primary liver cancer in Australia and occurs when cancer cells carried in the blood from other gastrointestinal organs, like the colon or stomach, become lodged in the liver and become tumourous. These cancer cells can also be spread in the lymphatic system.

Primary cancers, which are rare in Western countries, begin in the liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type. People with cirrhosis of the liver, or those who have been infected with a hepatitis virus have a higher risk of getting primary liver cancer.

Liver Cancer Treatment

It can be difficult to operate on the liver because of its position near major blood vessels and the rib cage and the fact that it is large, dense and delicate.

Treatment depends on whether the cancer is localised and operable, if it has spread through the liver and other parts of the body and if it has returned after an initial treatment.

The best treatment for liver cancer is surgical removal of the diseased section of liver. A full liver transplant may only be considered if a patient has another liver disease, like cirrhosis, and also depends on the extent of the cancer.

The liver is one of two body organs that can regenerate and new surgical techniques that stimulate this process before surgery are being trialled for when a large section of the liver needs to be removed.

If the liver also has another disease, such as cirrhosis, it may be very weak, sometimes making surgery impossible. In these cases other treatments may be used.

Image guided procedures, for instance, may be performanced through the skin without an incision to control the spread of cancer. These include ablation, where a chemical agent or energy is used to destroy the cancer and embolisation, where the tumour’s blood supply is cut off.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be used after surgery to increase the chance of a cure. Radiation therapy, however, is not used.

Find out how the ACRF is working to defeat Liver Cancer