Your liver is a major organ that acts as a filter for the blood that comes from your digestive, or GI, tract. Your liver also:

• Helps with digestion
• Turns food into energy
• Prevents infection
• Stores vital nutrients

Liver cancer develops when normal, healthy cells in the liver begin to grow and function differently. These cancerous cells build up and form a mass called a tumor, which exists as a lump inside the body and can spread.

There are several types of liver cancer, including:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma: This is the most common form of liver cancer. It develops within the cells inside the liver and most frequently affects people who have liver damage due to prolonged alcohol use.
• Cholangiocarcinoma: This uncommon form of cancer develops within bile ducts, the tubes that connect your liver, gallbladder and small intestine. These tubes are responsible for carrying bile from the liver to the gallbladder to break down fats.
• Hepatoblastoma: This is an extremely rare and aggressive form of liver cancer that’s found within blood vessels inside the liver.
• Angiosarcoma: This extremely rare form of liver cancer is typically found in children under age 3.

In its early stages, liver cancer may not show any symptoms. However, for different stages of liver cancer, symptoms vary and may include:

• Bloating, especially after eating
• Jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
• Nausea or vomiting
• Fatigue
• Sudden, unexplained weight loss
• Itchy skin
• Swelling or fluid retention around the abdomen (also known as ascites)

Having these symptoms doesn’t mean you have liver cancer. There are several liver-related conditions that can cause similar symptoms, including hepatitis or fatty liver disease. If you have any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor to rule out any underlying health conditions.

Certain behaviors, genetics and risk factors can increase your chances of developing liver cancer. These include:

• Chronic liver conditions: If you’ve previously had hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver or another chronic liver condition, your risk for developing liver cancer is higher.
• Prolonged or heavy alcohol use: Drinking alcohol heavily or for a prolonged period of time increases your risk of developing liver cancer.
• Smoking: Using tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, cigarettes and pipes, increases your risk of developing liver cancer.
• Family history: If you have a family member who has been diagnosed with liver cancer, your risk of developing it is higher.
• Diabetes: If you have Type 2 diabetes, you’re more likely to develop liver cancer than people who don’t.
• Age: Your risk of developing liver cancer increases as you get older. Most people are diagnosed after age 60.
• Other risk factors: Other risk factors that can increase your risk of developing liver cancer include being overweight, being female, using anabolic steroids and overusing certain pain relievers.

Screening tests that use the most advanced technology can detect liver cancer in its earliest stages, when it’s most treatable. Some of the diagnostic tests your doctor may perform to test for liver cancer include:

• FibroScan: This is a noninvasive ultrasound procedure that can identify changes in your liver.
• Liver biopsy: During a biopsy, your doctor removes a small sample of tissue using a thin needle or during a surgical procedure. Then a pathologist examines the tissue under a microscope for any cancerous cells (also called malignant cells).
• Blood tests: These tests can evaluate issues with your liver, gallbladder and surrounding organs.
• Imaging tests: Diagnostic imaging tests, such as ultrasounds, MRIs, CT scans and PET scans, produce detailed pictures of your liver. They can determine the size of any tumors and whether they have grown or shrunk. They can also see if cancerous cells have spread to other areas of the body.

Depending on the stage or type of your liver cancer, your doctor may recommend one or more of the following treatments:

Surgery: Surgery is a common method for treating liver cancer. The latest techniques to treat cancers in the liver, including minimally invasive surgery, can offer you the best outcome and path for healing.

Liver transplant: Your doctor may recommend a liver transplant if your tumor is in an area of the liver that makes it difficult to remove. During a liver transplant, your surgeon will replace your liver with a partial or whole healthy donor liver.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is a drug-based treatment designed to slow the growth of or shrink tumors. You can receive chemotherapy drugs through an IV or take them in pill form. 

You can receive chemotherapy: 

• Before your surgery, to attempt to reduce the size of the tumor
• After your surgery, to destroy any cancer that remains in the area and reduce the chances of the cancer coming back
• Along with radiation therapy (together, the treatments are known as chemoradiation or chemoradiotherapy)

Our team includes doctors called medical oncologists who specialize in chemotherapy. You’ll also have access to clinical trials that include testing new chemotherapy drugs and combinations of medications that aren’t widely available.

And while you’re treated in one of our clinics, many of which have been recently renovated, you’ll have heated seats and individual TVs to help you relax.

Radiation therapy: Radiation oncology uses radiation to control or destroy harmful cancer cells, with tools to treat each unique cancer.

Your clinical team can offer conventional radiotherapy treatments that include:

• External beam radiation, which uses special technology to send X-ray radiation (photons) to the tumor from outside the body
• Internal radiation (brachytherapy), which targets the tumor using safe levels of radiation inside the body through radioactive tubes or radioactive seeds
• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which uses a 3D image of the tumor to deliver high-precision radiotherapy that fits its exact outline
• Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), which localizes the radiation beam daily and treats cancers in areas of the body that move during and between treatments, including cone beam CT scans that accurately view the tumor and target it during treatment
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which uses precise conformal beams of radiation to focus high doses of radiation to just the tumor, with very little damage to surrounding healthy tissues

CyberKnife: This noninvasive treatment is for tumors that are hard to reach or inoperable. CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery targets complex tumors — including cancerous and non-cancerous tumors — by delivering high doses of targeted radiation safely anywhere in the body. There are no incisions involved, which means quicker treatments, less pain and faster recovery.

Immunotherapy: This treatment uses medicines that help your own immune system find and destroy cancer cells. Doctors use it to treat some types of liver cancer.

Clinical trials: Liver cancer research and clinical trials give you access to new treatments, often before they become widely available. Participating in a trial may help improve your condition, even if standard approaches haven’t worked in the past.

Targeted therapy: Targeted drugs treat liver cancer by taking advantage of specific defects in cancer cells that fuel the cells' growth. Doctors may use them in tandem with chemotherapy or radiation.

Second opinion clinic: When you visit our second opinion clinic, we’ll help you explore all available treatments. We’ll review diagnoses, diagnostic imaging, lab work, pathology reports and treatment plans, so you can make an informed decision about your care.