liver cancer | Liver Cancer-Symptoms and treatment

Liver Cancer-Symptoms and treatment



Liver cancer can be discovered by chance, during an ultrasound performed in another checkup, during the monitoring of cirrhosis or during the checkup of another cancer.




Symptoms
Risk Factors
Screening
Diagnosis
AFP Blood Dosage
Scanner and MRI
Extension balance
Treatment
Liver transplant
Surgery
Alcohol or radio frequency destruction
Chemotherapy by embolism
Chances of survival
Also read: Liver Cancer


Symptoms

Several symptoms, often mildly severe and occurring during many pathologies, can lead to the discovery of liver cancer. These include abdominal pain, fever, increased abdominal volume, weight loss, general condition, fatigue, vomiting, jaundice (jaundice), the presence of fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites)...

At first it can remain silent. This asymptomatic phase is in itself a real obstacle to early detection and thus to the management of this type of cancer.

Cirrhosis can evolve into liver cancer. It is in most cases the disease from which liver cancer develops. Alcohol is the first of the causes of cirrhosis. Liver Infection, hepatitis B and hepatitis C can complicate cirrhosis.
Risk Factors
Excessive consumption of alcohol, hepatitis B and C virus are risk factors for the occurrence of cirrhosis. People aged 50 to 55 years, especially men, some diseases such as iron overload (hemochromatosis) and obesity are other risk factors.

As well as hepatitis B and C, hemochromatosis (iron overload), non-alcoholic fatty, overweight, obesity, diabetes, smoking...
Screening
In people with chronic liver disease, the practice of hepatic ultrasound and regular blood dosage of Alfa-fetoprotein, tumor marker of the liver (molecule present in the blood and whose dosage allows to detect cancer and monitor the effectiveness of the treatment).
Diagnosis
The scanner or MRI are the main tests for diagnosis. The blood dosage of alpha-fetoprotein: The rate of AFP can be increased, but not systematically.
AFP Blood Dosage
AFP (Alpha-fetoprotein) is a tumour marker of the liver, a molecule present in the blood flow and whose dosage allows for cancer screening and monitoring of treatment efficacy. The blood level of AFP can be increased in the case of liver cancer, but not always systematically.
The determination of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is an important examination for contributing to the diagnosis of primitive liver cancer: it increases in effect in 90% of cases. It happens in rare cases that the rate of AFP is not increased. AFP is also augmented in other diseases such as for example during viral hepatitis or digestive tract cancers.
Scanner and MRI
The scan or MRI are the two tests that allow a diagnosis of liver cancer.

Extension balance
An extension balance is carried out to look for metastases. An MRI or a scanner is performed in the vast majority of situations. A brain scan, a chest X-ray and a bone scan can be requested.
Treatment
The prognosis of liver cancer varies according to several parameters: primitive or non-cancer, extension of the tumor, tumor size, number of tumors, general condition of the patient, presence of metastasis...

Thus, the use of surgery is mainly indicated when a tumor ablation is possible. To do this, the tumor has to be localized, which can only be the case in the context of primitive cancer. In the case of metastatic cancer, the choice of adjuvant chemotherapy is generally necessary to prepare a possible surgical procedure by reducing the number and size of the metastases.
Liver transplant
Liver transplant is the primary treatment of liver cancer in specific cases. It can only be proposed for tumors of small sizes. The results are very satisfactory: the recidivism rate at 5 years is in the order of 15%. Waiting times are very long.

Surgery
When liver transplant is impossible, surgery can be considered. The intervention consisting of partial ablation depends on the size and location of the tumor, the general condition of the patient.... The intervention is envisaged in order to preserve a maximum of healthy tissue. Monitoring the blood dosage of the alpha fetal protein, AFP, after surgery helps to verify the risk of recurrence.
Alcohol or radio frequency destruction
When there are contraindications to liver surgery or transplantation, alternative treatments may be proposed. Alcoholization, or radiofrequency destruction, are more recent techniques allowing more specific destruction of the tumor.
Chemotherapy by embolism
Embolism chemotherapy is performed by introducing a drug into the arteries of the liver while removing the blood supply from the tumor.

Chances of survival
Liver cancer is a very serious pathology. The liver is a primordial organ, very vascularized which implies a risk of high metastasis. In addition, liver cancer is generally asymptomatic, which, apart from regular follow-up for another pathology (cirrhosis), induces a risk of late diagnosis. These factors explain that the chances of survival are relatively low (about 13% to 5 years). However, many factors can vary this figure (general health status, age, location...).
Pierrick Horde
Carried out in collaboration with health and medical professionals, under the direction of Dr. Mr. Farah Horde, editorial director of health-medicine and the special health.