• What is liver cancer?


    Liver cancer is mutated or changed cells that grow in the liver which cause an unbalance. This is called hepatocellular cancer or carcinoma. Sometimes the cancer began in other organs such as the colon, stomach, pancreas, breast, and lung, and then it spreads to the liver, in this case its name is metastatic liver cancer.


    Which are the symptoms of liver cancer?


    Liver cancer symptoms appear in advanced stages of the cancer and, in developing countries, the lack of medical attention increases the advanced cases and life expectation after diagnosis is less. Screening tests could help to detect mutant cells growth in the liver, giving the patient more chances to recover from that abnormality. Some of the symptoms are:

    • Abdominal pain: presence of a very large tumor
    • Weight loss and fevers: common signs in cirrhosis patients
    • Ascites: abdominal fluid and swelling
    • Jaundice: yellow color of the skin
    • Muscle wasting


    Which are the liver cancer treatment options?


    • Chemotherapy: treats cancer with drugs that can destroy cancer cells
    • Chemoembolization (trans-arterial chemoembolization or TACE): blocks the small blood vessels
    • Radiofrecuency ablation: tissue destruction therapy
    • Percutaneous ethanol injection: pure alcohol is injected into the tumor through a very thin needle
    • Proton beam therapy: high doses of radiation to a defined local area
    • Liver resection: it removes the tumor completely
    • Liver transplantation: best option for patients with tumors that are less than 5 cm in size with signs of liver failure


    What is liver cancer syndrome?


    It is the genetic predisposition to develop liver cancer. If any relative has had or has died from this type of cancer or any other, visit your doctor because screening tests before having symptoms might change the course of cancer.


    What is metastatic liver cancer?


    According to the Merck Manual this type of cancer is "a cancer that has spread to the liver from elsewhere in the body." The first evident symptoms, although they are vague sometimes, include weight loss, poor appetite, and sometimes fever. Most of the times the liver grows big and hard.

    To diagnose this type of cancer is very difficult until it gets to an advanced stage. Blood tests are made to find abnormalities, however the results are like the ones that also show other type of diseases. To examine the liver condition three tests could be done, Ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which show the tumor, but this tests' disadvantage is that very small tumors are hard to identify.

    Since it is so difficult to recognize if cancer is invading the liver, the best tool people have is to visit the doctor regularly and to have a healthy lifestyle. Despite the fact that medical attention is for many a difficult service to get, inform yourself about the symptoms of liver cancer.