Liver Cancer

Your liver does many essential jobs to help keep you alive. It produces bile, which helps with digestion. It stores nutrients from food and changes them into forms your body can use. It breaks down toxins so they can leave your body. Liver cancer can significantly disrupt these important functions.

If you have received an unexpected test result, are managing a chronic liver condition or are searching for care options after a recent diagnosis, Capital Health can help reduce your uncertainty and connect you to the resources you need.

Discover the latest in liver cancer care.

What Is Liver Cancer?

Liver cancer is a type of uncontrolled cell growth that begins in the cells of your liver. This type of liver cancer is called primary liver cancer. Cancers that start in other parts of your body and spread to your liver are called secondary liver cancers. Doctors usually refer to them by where they started.

There are many types of primary liver cancer. The types that commonly occur in adults include:

Hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type
Cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer
Fibrolamellar carcinoma
Angiosarcoma
Hemangiosarcoma

What Causes Liver Cancer?

Like other cancers, liver cancer happens when genetic mutations (changes) cause cells to grow out of control. These changes may be inherited, but some liver cancers can arise spontaneously, meaning they have no known cause.

What Are Liver Cancer Risk Factors?

Men are about twice as likely to develop liver cancer as women. Other factors that raise your risk for liver cancer include:

Alcohol use
Cirrhosis of the liver
Diabetes
Hemochromatosis, an iron storage disorder
Hepatitis B or C infection
MASLD, a metabolic disorder
Obesity or being overweight
Smoking

Learn whether you’re at risk for liver cancer.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Liver Cancer?

Liver cancer can go undetected in its early stages and not show signs until it has had time to grow and spread. Symptoms include:

A hard lump just below your right ribs
Bleeding or bruising easily
Fatigue
Jaundice, or a yellow tint to your skin and the whites of your eyes
Loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting
Pain in your right upper abdomen (belly)
Swollen abdomen
Unexplained weight loss

How Is Liver Cancer Diagnosed?

Doctors use blood tests, biopsies and imaging studies to diagnose liver cancer, determine how far it has spread and how it might affect you.

Tests specific to liver cancer include:

Alpha-fetoprotein test: Doctors test your blood for a protein that can be high in people with advanced liver cancer, helping them determine how well treatment is working or whether cancer has returned after treatment.
Blood chemistry tests: Your liver is key to getting vital minerals, sugars and fats into your blood. Tests for calcium, glucose and cholesterol help your doctors make sure your levels stay on track.
Blood clotting test: Since your liver makes blood-clotting factors, your doctors will check whether your cancer has increased your risk for bleeding.
Hepatitis tests: These can help determine whether your cancer is related to hepatitis.

Treatment Options for Liver Cancer

Your medical team might treat liver cancer with surgery or other advanced procedures, systemic therapies or radiation therapy.

Histotripsy: This leading-edge, nonsurgical treatment involves high-frequency soundwaves (ultrasound technology) to liquefy and destroy liver tumors. It often benefits people who can’t have surgery to remove a liver tumor.
Interventional radiology procedures: Doctors work through small ports and tubes to place treatments such as radioactive beads.
Radiation therapy: Radiation targets tumors. CyberKnife radiosurgery uses 3D imaging to guide radiation for extra-fine precision.
Surgery: Doctors remove part of your liver using open or minimally invasive procedures. Unlike some organs, your liver can grow back after surgery.
Systemic therapy: Chemotherapy targets fast-growing cells and destroys cancer anywhere in your body. Immunotherapy boosts your immune system’s ability to fight cancer.
Targeted therapies: A multidisciplinary team analyzes your cancer to help identify which treatments will work best.
Liver transplant: If your cancer can’t be removed surgically and you are strong enough, your doctors may refer you for liver transplant surgery.

Ex Vivo Liver Resection With Liver-Auto Transplant

At Capital Health Cancer Center, a rare hybrid procedure called ex-vivo liver resection with liver-auto transplant helps some patients who have cancer that cannot be removed surgically.

In this procedure, your surgeons take out your liver and remove hard-to-reach tumors in a procedure outside your body. Then your surgical team reconstructs your liver’s blood vessels and puts a portion of your liver back into your body.

Preventing Liver Cancer

Unfortunately, liver cancer cannot always be prevented completely, but there’s plenty you can do to lessen your chances of developing it.

Ask your doctor if you need testing for hepatitis B or C.
Avoid behaviors that place you at risk for hepatitis B or C, such as sharing needles or having unprotected sex.
Get a hepatitis B vaccination. (There is no vaccination for hepatitis C.)
If you do have hepatitis, follow your treatment plan carefully.
If you have diabetes, track and manage your insulin levels.
Limit alcoholic drinks to two per day for men, one per day for women.
Use exercise and careful food choices to maintain a healthy weight.

Liver Cancer Care at Capital Health

Capital Health Cancer Center’s Liver Center of Excellence combines regional expertise with the latest in liver cancer treatments, from noninvasive histotripsy to ex-vivo liver resection with auto-liver transplant. In addition, the experienced team at Capital Health Hepatology Specialists can address a variety of conditions that increase your risk of liver cancer.

With a wealth of patient support services and access to clinical trials, Capital Health is your partner in the fight against liver cancer.

Request a consultation with a Capital Health oncologist.