Liver Cancer

Treatment

The treatment for liver cancer depends upon several factors, including the age of the patient, the stage of the disease, and other underlying medical conditions. The oncologists provide detailed information and the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option to allow the patients to make informed decisions.

The common treatment options for liver cancer include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted drug therapy. Other therapies may be administered in such patients depending on the stage, response to conventional treatment options, and preference of the patient.

If the cancer is diagnosed at an initial stage, surgery may be the only treatment required. However, a combination of treatments is often required in an advanced stage of liver cancer.

• Surgery: The patient with liver cancer may undergo partial hepatectomy or liver transplant. During the partial hepatectomy, the surgeon removes the affected part of the liver. However, the procedure is not effective alone if the tumor has spread to nearby blood vessels or to other body parts. A liver transplant is also an option in patients with small tumors that have not spread to the blood vessels, and partial hepatectomy is not feasible due to underlying severe liver disease.
• Ablation: Ablation can be an option in patients with liver cancer who cannot undergo surgery due to reduced liver function or overall poor health. During ablation, the surgeon destroys the tumor through several methods. The types of ablation used for the management of liver cancer are cryoablation, ethanol ablation, radiofrequency ablation, and microwave ablation.
• Embolization: Tumor cells require adequate blood supply and nutrition to grow and divide. Embolization is the process of blocking or reducing the blood supply to the tumor by injecting substances into the liver arteries. The types of embolization include drug-eluting bead chemoembolization, trans-arterial chemoembolization, radioembolization, and trans-arterial embolization.
• Radiation therapy: Radiation therapy uses high-energy particles to destroy tumor cells. This procedure is not generally used in patients who have severe liver diseases, such as cirrhosis or hepatitis. The radiation therapy is external beam radiation therapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy. In external beam radiation therapy, the radiations are guided on the tumor cells from outside the body. In stereotactic body radiation therapy, radioactive substances are placed near the tumor to destroy the tumor.
• Targeted drug therapy: There are certain processes exclusively for the tumor cells that promote their abnormal growth and development. The targeted drug therapy targets these processes and inhibits them. It results in the cessation of the growth of cancerous cells. Kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies are targeted drug therapies used for the treatment of liver cancer.
• Immunotherapy: Immune system detects the abnormal cells and destroys them. However, in some cases, the abnormal cells evade the immune system through certain processes and grow to develop cancer. Immunotherapy is used to target those processes and make the tumor cells more susceptible to the immune system.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. These drugs may be administered orally or through injection. The chemotherapy may be through systemic chemotherapy, regional chemotherapy, and hepatic artery infusion.