Treatment of liver cancer
How is liver cancer treated? The treatment and chance of recovery (also called prognosis) of liver cancer disease may rely upon specific things. These include general health, working condition of the liver, the phase or stage of cancer, and alpha-fetoprotein levels.
Liver malignant growth might be dealt with utilizing at least one technique: surgery, different types of drug therapy, locoregional therapy, and even liver transplantation.
Surgical treatments
The surgical treatments involved or used for treating liver cancer may include:
- Partial hepatectomy: this treatment is carried out by removinga part of the liver including a smaller wedge or even an entire liver lobe.
- Total hepatectomy and liver transplant: In a liver transplant, the entire liver is removed from the body and replaced by another liver obtained from the donor. Patients whocan undergo liver transplants must have a tumor size smaller than 5 centimeters, or in case of several tumors, each of them should be smaller than 3 centimeters each. In other conditions, the chances of cancer reoccurrence or returning are very high, and such high-risk liver transplantation can’t be justified.
When a transplant is successful, it minimizes the risk of cancer reoccurrence and can even restore the liver’s normal functioning. However, sometimes the new organ is ‘rejected’ and attacked by the immune system, which considers it a foreign body.
Further, several drugs used to suppress the immune system’s rejection and help the body adjust to the newly transplanted liver may have adverse effects and leave the person susceptible to various infections that might be severe. Occasionally, such drugs also contributeto spreading the previously metastasized tumors.
