survival rate for liver cancer

survival rate for liver cancer

In advanced liver cancer, the tumor can spread locally to neighboring tissues or, through the blood vessels, elsewhere in the body (distant metastasis). Locally, liver cancer can invade the veins that drain the liver (hepatic veins). The tumor can then block these veins, which results in congestion of the liver. The congestion occurs because the blocked veins cannot drain the blood out of the liver. (Normally, the blood in the hepatic veins leaving the liver flows through the inferior vena cava, which is the largest vein that drains into the heart.) In African patients, the tumor frequently blocks the inferior vena cava. Blockage of either the hepatic veins or the inferior vena cava results in a very swollen liver and massive formation of ascites. In some patients, as previously mentioned, the tumor can invade the portal vein and lead to the rupture of esophageal varices.

Regarding distant metastases, liver cancer frequently spreads to the lungs, presumably by way of the bloodstream. Usually, patients do not have symptoms from the lung metastases, which are diagnosed by radiologic (X-ray) studies. Rarely, in very advanced cases, liver cancer can spread to the bone or brain. These are an infrequent problem in many patients who do not live long enough to develop these complications.

symptoms of liver cancer

symptoms of liver cancer

Liver Cancer Symptoms

One of the reasons that liver cancer is frequently hard to diagnose is that many of its signs and symptoms are usually vague and nonspecific, meaning that almost any illness can cause them. Symptoms such as weakness, fatigue, weight loss, or loss of appetite are common. Signs of liver damage may appear as the tumor grows, such as an increase in abdominal size due to accumulation of fluid around the liver and intestines (called ascites), and jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes along with dark urine. Jaundice occurs because of a buildup in the blood of bilirubin, a breakdown product of red blood cells that is usually handled by the liver. More severe liver failure may cause internal bleeding and mental changes, including confusion, or uncontrollable sleepiness (encephalopathy) as the liver is no longer able to handle all the harmful chemicals in the blood. Rarely, affected people may develop fevers, night sweats, or pain.


The initial symptoms (the clinical presentations) of liver cancer are variable. It is becoming much more common for patients to be identified by screening people at high risk for the cancer and finding the cancer before there are any symptoms at all. In countries where liver cancer is very common, the cancer generally is discovered at a very advanced stage of disease for several reasons. For one thing, areas where there is a high frequency of liver cancer are generally developing countries where access to health care is limited. For another, screening examinations for patients at risk for developing liver cancer are not available in these areas. In addition, patients from these regions may actually have more aggressive liver cancer disease. In other words, the tumor usually reaches an advanced stage and causes symptoms more rapidly. In contrast, patients in areas of low liver cancer frequency tend to have liver cancer tumors that progress more slowly and, therefore, remain without symptoms longer.

There are no specific symptoms of liver cancer, and in fact, the earliest signs are usually subtle and can be mistaken for simple worsening of cirrhosis and liver function. Abdominal pain is uncommon with liver cancer and usually signifies a very large tumor or widespread involvement of the liver. Additionally, unexplained weight loss or unexplained fevers are warning signs of liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis. These symptoms are less common in individuals with liver cancer in the U.S. because these patients are usually diagnosed at an earlier stage. However, whenever the overall health of a patient with cirrhosis deteriorates, every effort should be made to look for liver cancer.

A common initial presentation of liver cancer in a patient with compensated cirrhosis (meaning that there are no complications of liver disease) is the sudden onset of a complication. For example, the sudden appearance of ascites (abdominal fluid and swelling), jaundice (yellow color of the skin), or muscle wasting without causative (precipitating) factors (for example, alcohol consumption) suggests the possibility of liver cancer. What's more, the cancer can invade and block the portal vein (a large vein that brings blood to the liver from the intestine and spleen). When this happens, the blood will travel paths of less resistance, such as through esophageal veins. This causes increased pressure in these veins, which results in dilated (widened) veins called esophageal varices. The patient then is at risk for hemorrhage from the rupture of the varices into the gastrointestinal tract. Rarely, the cancer itself can rupture and bleed into the abdominal cavity, resulting in bloody ascites.

On physical examination, an enlarged, sometimes tender, liver is the most common finding. Liver cancers are very vascular (containing many blood vessels) tumors. Thus, increased amounts of blood feed into the hepatic artery (artery to the liver) and cause turbulent blood flow in the artery. The turbulence results in a distinct sound in the liver (hepatic bruit) that can be heard with a stethoscope in about one-quarter to one-half of patients with liver cancer. Any sign of advanced liver disease (for example, ascites, jaundice, or muscle wasting) means a poor prognosis. Rarely, a patient with liver cancer can become suddenly jaundiced when the tumor erodes into the bile duct. The jaundice occurs in this situation because both sloughing of the tumor into the duct and bleeding that clots in the duct can block the duct.

In advanced liver cancer, the tumor can spread locally to neighboring tissues or, through the blood vessels, elsewhere in the body (distant metastasis). Locally, liver cancer can invade the veins that drain the liver (hepatic veins). The tumor can then block these veins, which results in congestion of the liver. The congestion occurs because the blocked veins cannot drain the blood out of the liver. (Normally, the blood in the hepatic veins leaving the liver flows through the inferior vena cava, which is the largest vein that drains into the heart.) In African patients, the tumor frequently blocks the inferior vena cava. Blockage of either the hepatic veins or the inferior vena cava results in a very swollen liver and massive formation of ascites. In some patients, as previously mentioned, the tumor can invade the portal vein and lead to the rupture of esophageal varices.

Regarding distant metastases, liver cancer frequently spreads to the lungs, presumably by way of the bloodstream. Usually, patients do not have symptoms from the lung metastases, which are diagnosed by radiologic (X-ray) studies. Rarely, in very advanced cases, liver cancer can spread to the bone or brain. These are an infrequent problem in many patients who do not live long enough to develop these complications.

Liver Cancer

Adult primary liver cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the liver.

The liver is one of the largest organs in the body. It has four lobes and fills the upper right side of the abdomen inside the rib cage. The liver has many important functions, including:

    Filtering harmful substances from the blood so they can be passed from the body in stools and urine.
    Making bile to help digest fats from food.
    Storing glycogen (sugar), which the body uses for energy.


Anatomy of the liver. The liver is in the upper abdomen near the stomach, intestines, gallbladder, and pancreas. The liver has four lobes. Two lobes are on the front and two small lobes (not shown) are on the back of the liver.

prognosis liver cancer

prognosis liver cancer

Causes of Primary prognosis Liver Cancer

Most people who develop hepatoma have a liver that has already been damaged in some way, usually many years earlier. The most common risk factor in the United States is alcohol abuse; in the rest of the world, hepatitis B and hepatitis C are the risk factors responsible for most cases of hepatoma. Although these are preventable problems, the incidence of hepatoma is actually rising in many countries. In the United States, due in part to a large increase in hepatitis C infection several decades ago, the incidence has doubled to over 17,000 cases each year. Recent research has demonstrated that a large part of the increase in hepatoma is due to the rise in obesity and diabetes over the past few decades. Certain genetic diseases, such as hemochromatosis (a disease that results in abnormally high stored levels of iron), can also eventually result in the development of this tumor, as can aflatoxin, a food contaminant that is common in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Alcohol abuse: Those with a history of alcohol abuse have about a 15% lifetime chance of developing hepatoma, and it is frequently found unexpectedly at autopsy in alcoholics who die from other causes. The risk rises with increasing alcohol use but only up to a certain point; severe alcoholics will not live long enough to develop the cancer, and because of this, the risk actually rises after quitting drinking.

Hepatitis B: This DNA virus is the most common cause of hepatocellular cancer worldwide, responsible for most cases of hepatoma in geographic areas where it is a very common cancer (Asia and sub-Saharan Africa). Many people in these parts of the world get infected with the virus at a young age, and 15% are unable to clear the virus from their systems. This leads them to become "chronic carriers," which increases the risk of developing hepatoma 200 times higher than normal. Along with steady and repeated destruction of the liver cells, the virus transfers some of its DNA into the human liver cells, and this helps initiate the process of transforming to a cancer cell (carcinogenesis).

Hepatitis C: This is an RNA virus, causing millions of infections over the past few decades by contaminated needles or blood products before a screening test was developed. This infection is responsible now for about three-quarters of all hepatomas in Japan and Europe. After infection, there is a lifetime risk of 5% of developing hepatoma, at an average time of 28 years after infection.

Aflatoxin: This is a byproduct of a mold affecting spoiled stored food products such as grains and peanuts in parts of the world such as Africa, Thailand, and the Philippines. Aflatoxin binds to the DNA of live cells and causes mutations that lead to cancer. This was the first discovery of precisely how an environmental contaminant causes cancer to develop on the molecular level. There is no significant amount in any food for humans in the United States (although there has been contamination of feed for cattle that eventually showed up in small amounts in their milk).

NASH: Diabetes and obesity lead to the development of a condition known as fatty liver and non-alcoholic steatorrheic hepatitis (NASH). This causes the accumulation of fatty acids within the liver cells that eventually cause liver damage. Over a 10-year period, this more than triples the risk of hepatoma and makes it much more likely that the cancer will return after surgery.

What most of these processes have in common is that they lead to cirrhosis, which is a severe and irreversible scarring disease of the liver that leads to repeated cycles of cell death and regeneration, eventually allowing some of these cells to become cancerous. In the United States, about one-quarter of people with hepatoma have no risk factors at all, and no reason can be found.

treatment for liver cancer

treatment for liver cancer

Treatment Option Overview

There are different types of treatment for patients with adult primary liver cancer.

Different types of treatments are available for patients with adult primary liver cancer. Some treatments are standard (the currently used treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. A treatment clinical trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain information on new treatments for patients with cancer. When clinical trials show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard treatment. Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.


There are many different types of therapy that are used for people with liver cancer. It is very important that the treatment is personalized for each individual since people and tumors may react differently. The main characteristics that help to decide which therapy is best and safest are the functional health of the liver; the size, number, and locations of the tumors; and the person's other medical problems and overall well-being. Because of the complexity of the decisions and the number of treatment options available for many patients, care is frequently coordinated through a multidisciplinary group of physicians specializing in hepatoma. This team of different specialists usually includes surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, gastroenterologists, radiation therapists, and pathologists.

One of the difficulties in treating liver cancers is that they frequently occur in people with damaged livers. This makes it harder for them to tolerate drugs or procedures that might be needed since side effects may become worse as the liver deteriorates. Therefore, in order to be safe, the options of how best to treat a tumor may be limited if the liver function is poor. Also, since many North-American patients are older and have diabetes, their overall health might prevent the safe application of certain therapies.

what is liver cancer

what is liver cancer


  The liver is a large organ located in the upper right side of the abdomen, mostly underneath the ribs. It plays a very important role in maintaining the body's overall health. Most of the blood leaving the intestines travels through the liver, where it is filtered of both toxic chemicals and bacteria. The liver uses nutrients in the blood to provide energy for the body by storing and releasing sugars. It is also the main source of proteins necessary for many bodily activities such as normal blood clotting, growth, and nutrition. In addition, the liver creates bile, a fluid that is important for digestion. It is made by liver cells called hepatocytes and is then carried in tubes (the bile ducts) directly into the intestine or to the gallbladder, where it is stored until we eat. When these tubes are blocked for some reason, the bile backs up into the bloodstream, causing a yellow tinge to the eyes, mouth, and skin, and darkening of the urine; this is called jaundice.

What Is Liver Cancer?

Usually, when people speak of liver cancer, they mean a cancer that has begun somewhere else in the body and then spread to the liver. This is called metastatic disease or metastases. Due partly to its very high blood flow and local production of growth-enhancing molecules, the liver is one of the most common places for metastases to take root. Tumors that originally arise in the colon, pancreas, stomach, lung, breast, or elsewhere can spread to the liver, sometimes causing pain or damaging liver function. In the Western Hemisphere, most cases of liver cancer actually are cancers that started in another organ.

Sometimes, cancer may arise in the cells of the liver itself. Cancer of the hepatocytes (the main functioning liver cell) is a primary liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma or hepatoma. Hepatoma usually grows in the liver as one or more round tumors, invading and destroying the normal tissue as it expands. Cancer of the bile duct cells is called cholangiocarcinoma. Cholangiocarcinoma generally grows along the bile ducts in sheets or finger-like lines, making it harder to identify on X-ray studies.

Liver Cancer

Adult primary liver cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the liver.

The liver is one of the largest organs in the body. It has four lobes and fills the upper right side of the abdomen inside the rib cage. The liver has many important functions, including:

    Filtering harmful substances from the blood so they can be passed from the body in stools and urine.
    Making bile to help digest fats from food.
    Storing glycogen (sugar), which the body uses for energy.


Anatomy of the liver. The liver is in the upper abdomen near the stomach, intestines, gallbladder, and pancreas. The liver has four lobes. Two lobes are on the front and two small lobes (not shown) are on the back of the liver