It is more common to develop liver cancer that has spread from another part of the body, called liver metastasis. However, each year between 16,000 and 20,000 people are diagnosed with primary liver cancer, which means that the cancer begins in the liver itself.

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The number of people with primary liver cancer is increasing as more people have conditions that affect the liver and increase the risk of liver cancer, such as chronic hepatitis C. Primary liver cancer tends to occur in people between the ages of 60 and 70, and is more common in men.

 

Types of liver cancer

• Hepatocellular Carcinoma

• Intrahepatic Choangiocarcinoma

• Fibrolamellar-hepatocellular Carcinoma (FLL-HCC)

• Angiosarcomas, Hemangiosarcomas, and Hemangioendotheliomas

• Hepatoblastomas

• Benign Liver Tumors

 

Symptoms for liver cancer

 

Liver cancer presents a special challenge because you may not notice any symptoms when the disease is starting and in its early stages.

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Some of the symptoms include: yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes (jaundice), darkening of the urine, lightening in the color of the stool, an overall feeling of poor health or weakness, loss of usual appetite and weight loss, fever, fatigue, bloating, swelling of the legs and abdomen, generalized itching, pain or discomfort in your abdomen.

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RiskF for liver cancer

 

Up to 80 percent of primary liver cancers worldwide are caused​​ from infection with the hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus. Infection with this virus can affect you for many years and cause cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver.

 

Other risk factors:

• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

• Cirrhosis of the liver made worse by alcohol use

• hemochromatosis

• Arsenic exposure

• Too much intake of male hormones or anabolic steroids

• Aflatoxin ingestion

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Diagnosis of liver cancer

 

It’s important to get an accurate diagnosis of primary liver cancer so that your condition can be treated the right way from the beginning.

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Along with a diagnosis, we’ll determine the extent (stage) of your cancer through blood tests, diagnostic imaging, biopsy, and genetic testing of your tumor.

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A test that measures the level of a protein produced by the liver called alpha fetoprotein (AFP) can indicate that you have fibrolamellar-hepatocellular carcinoma.

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Treatment for liver cancer

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Today, many people survive the disease.

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Because surgery for liver cancer can be challenging — many important blood vessels are near the liver — we may recommend chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or other approaches in addition to considering surgery. Sometimes we use radiation therapy to treat the disease, but this isn’t as common.

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When surgery isn’t the best option, we may call on our interventional radiologists to perform minimally invasive techniques using CT, ultrasound, or MRI to guide the treatments directly to your liver and destroy the tumor.