Primary liver cancer is a disease that develops when cells of the liver become abnormal. Liver is one of the largest organs in the body and performs several important functions to keep the body free of harmful substances. Primary liver cancer starts in your liver. Metastatic liver cancer starts somewhere else and spreads to the liver.
Cancer treatments can cause several changes to your body. There are some side effects of each type of cancer treatment, which different people experience differently. As you prepare yourself for cancer treatment, you may benefit from these coping strategies.
Chemotherapy is a widely used treatment for cancer. The term ‘chemotherapy’ refers to the drugs that prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing. It works by killing the cells that divide in an uncontrolled way.
If you have a cancer, the survival rate and prognosis depends on how advanced it is at the time of diagnosis. These are general statistics based on large groups of people. But, they can’t accurately tell what will happen in an individual case. No one can tell exactly how long you’ll live.
Advanced liver cancer does not travel to distant organs, but when it does, it is most likely to spread to other parts of the body. The rates of survival are higher for people who can undergo surgery to remove their cancer, regardless of the stage. When cancer is diagnosed at stage 4, it's usually too late to slow down the spread of the cancer.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver that usually occurs in the context of cirrhosis, hepatitis B or C virus infection, or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. A significant number of HCC patients are asymptomatic and may be diagnosed following the screening. Patients who are at risk of HCC should be kept under surveillance with HCC liver ultrasound done at 6-month intervals. Ultrasound plays an important role in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of HCC because it can provide real-time and non-invasive observation by a simple and easy technique that is not too costly.
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