Treatment of liver cancer

Treatment of liver cancerThe treatment options are dictated by the stage of liver cancer and the overall condition of the patient. The only proven cure for liver cancer is liver transplantation for a solitary, small (<3cm) tumor. Now, many physicians may dispute this statement. They may argue that a small tumor can be surgically removed (partial hepatic resection) without the need for a liver transplantation. Moreover, they may claim that the one and three year survival rates for resection are perhaps comparable to those for liver transplantation.The results of the various medical treatments (chemotherapy, chemoembolization, ablation, and proton beam therapy) remain disappointing. Moreover, for reasons noted earlier (primarily the variability in natural history), there have been no systematic...

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Symptoms of liver

Symptoms of liver cancerThe initial symptoms (the clinical presentations) of liver cancer are variable. 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 healthcare 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 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...

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