Liver Cancer
What kinds of liver cancer are there?
There are actually two major types of liver
cancer
- Hepatocellular cancer or carcinoma, also
sometimes called hepatoma
- Metastatic liver cancer
Metastatic liver cancer actually starts in
another organ of the body, like the lungs, colon, stomach,
pancreas, breast, and then spreads to the liver.
Hepatocellular cancer or carcinoma is the
type of cancer that will be covered in this article.
Hepatocellular cancer arises in the cells of the
liver itself. It may or may not spread to other organs. About
90-95% of liver cancers arise from liver cells. This type
of liver cancer occurs more often in men and also happens more
with a liver disease called cirrhosis.
Cholangiocarcinoma, which is also known as
bile duct cancer, begins in the cells lining the bile ducts.
This type of liver cancer is more common in women.
Liver cancer is an extremely serious and
often deadly form of cancer. It is often fatal within a year.
This is probably because liver cancer symptoms don't often
appear until the cancer has reached an advanced stage. By the
time symptoms appear, When the patient does develop symptoms,
the prognosis is usually poor.
Liver cancer stage descriptions
"Stage" is a term used to describe the size
of a liver cancer tumor and whether it has spread beyond the
liver. By knowing the stage, medical professionals can
determine what treatment is best.
- Stage 1 The cancer is less than 2
centimeters and hasn't started to spread.
- Stage 2 The cancer has begun to affect
the blood vessels in the liver. There may also be more than
one tumor in the liver in this stage.
- Stage 3A The cancer has grown to 5
centimeters or more, or has spread to blood vessels in the
vicinity of the liver.
- Stage 3B The cancer has spread to nearby
organs, such as the bowel or the stomach, but has not
spread to the lymph nodes.
- Stage 3C The cancer as spread to nearby
lymph nodes. The tumor can be any size and still be
described as "3C" if it in present in the lymph
nodes.
- Stage 4 The cancer has spread to other
parts of the body.
Ways of recognizing a liver cancer symptom
Click on liver cancer symptom
list to see an article devoted to this subject.
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