Liver cancer can be primary, meaning it originates in the liver, or secondary, meaning that it's spread to the liver from another area of the body. Primary liver cancer affects around 21,000 people in the United States each year, with twice as many men as women affected. Liver cancer often goes undiagnosed until the disease is advanced, due to vague symptoms. Treatments for liver cancer depend on the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis.
Surgery
If liver cancer hasn't spread and liver function is otherwise normal, a partial hepatectomy, or removal of part of the liver, may be done. People with small tumors that can't be removed may be considered for liver transplant, especially if they already have liver disease. Liver cancer often occurs in people with existing liver disease. Liver surgery carries a risk of serious bleeding complications, since the liver normally makes substances that help blood clot.
Ablation
Ablation destroys cancer cells that can't be removed. Cryoablation, or cryotherapy, places liquid nitrogen directly onto the tumors. Radiofrequency ablation uses electric current to heat and destroy cells, while ethanol injection involves injection of ethanol alcohol into the tumor cells, which dries them out, MayoClinic.com states. Ethanol injection is done once or twice a week under local anesthesia, or general anesthesia if there are many tumors.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy medications treat liver cancer in several ways. In chemoembolization, the hepatic artery, which supplies blood to the liver, is blocked and chemotherapy drugs are injected between the blockage and the liver, MayoClinic.com says. This technique delivers chemotherapy directly to the liver. Regional chemotherapy pumps anticancer drugs directly into the blood vessels that lead to the tumor, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Targeted drug therapy with sorafenib, also sold under the brand name Nexavar, decreases the body's ability to make new blood vessels to feed cancer tumors, which thereby slows or stops cancer growth, MayoClinic.com reports.
Radiation
Radiation therapy uses high energy beams to kill cancer cells and decrease pain, but doesn't prolong life when used to treat liver cancer, the American Cancer Society reports. Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy, or 3DCRT, uses computers to pinpoint the exact location of the tumors and allows use of higher levels of radiation than could otherwise be used, the same source reports. Radioactive seeds, needles or wires can also be placed near the tumors, according to the National Cancer Institute. Giving drugs called radiosensitizers in conjunction with radiation makes the cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation.
