Understanding Liver Cancer: Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and Treatment Options

Liver cancer is one of the more dangerous cancers. Its mortality rate is high because there are no obvious symptoms in the early stages of liver cancer. What are the treatments for liver cancer? (Explode/Shutterstock)

Liver cancer is the fastest growing cause of cancer death in the United States, killing approximately 30,000 American adults each year.According to the American Liver Foundationdataliver cancer death rates have more than doubled in the United States since 1980, and surged 43% between 2000 and 2016.

Chronic viral hepatitis is the leading cause of liver cancer in the United States. Many people are hepatitis B virus carriers, and some even don’t know they are carriers until they develop hepatitis, cirrhosis, or even liver cancer.

What is liver cancer? Why do people get liver cancer? Any treatment therapies? How to prevent it? This is a big topic. In the next few issues of the Three Medical Forums, we will talk about the incidence, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of liver cancer, as well as methods of preventing and treating liver cancer in addition to modern treatment methods.

development of liver cancer

Under normal circumstances, human cells have a normal metabolic process. When cells age and die, new cells will replace them. Cancer is actually when cells become cancerous, resulting in uncontrolled growth and endless division. At the same time, they lose the function of normal cells, which in turn affects the function of body organs and ultimately leads to death of the human body.

So what is the relationship between tumors and cancer that people often talk about? Tumors are divided into benign and malignant. Malignant tumors are cancer. Cancer can be tangible, such as cells that divide endlessly and grow to form a cancerous mass, or blood cancers like leukemia, which is caused by the canceration of certain white blood cells in the blood, without forming a mass.

Liver cancer, especially primary liver cancer, means that the liver cells themselves become cancerous, grow out of control, lose the functions of normal liver cells, damage the function of the liver, and eventually lead to liver failure and death.

How to diagnose liver cancer that is difficult to detect in its early stages?

Liver cancer is one of the more dangerous cancers. Its mortality rate is high because there are no obvious symptoms in the early stages of liver cancer. If symptoms appear, liver cancer is already at an advanced stage, and in many cases the cancer has metastasized, usually to the nearby gallbladder and its adjacent organs. It can also metastasize to bones, lungs, and even to the liver through the blood and lymphatic system. Brain and more.

Liver cancer patients often experience fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss in the early stages; in more severe stages, they may develop dark urine, jaundice on the skin and eyes, and then develop abdominal masses.

The liver is located on the right side of the abdomen, behind the lower edge of the right ribs. If there is a tumor in the liver, it will swell. During the physical examination, the enlarged liver can be felt, and even masses on the liver can be felt. At this time, obvious swelling of the abdomen can be observed. More severe liver cancer will produce a large amount of ascites, and can also cause hepatocerebral syndrome and make the patient comatose.

Usually, for the diagnosis of liver cancer, in addition to the above clinical symptom diagnosis, biochemical examination is also required. One of the important markers is alpha-fetoprotein. Alpha-fetoprotein will be elevated in liver cancer patients, and the degree of liver function damage can be detected through blood tests.

In addition, there are imaging examinations, such as ultrasound examination and CT scan, which can reveal the shape of the liver, the size of the tumor, and the location where it occurs. There is also magnetic resonance imaging, which is more accurate. In addition, more accurate whole-body examinations, such as positron emission tomography scans, can be used to see whether there is metastasis of lesions. These examination methods are nothing more than to determine the degree of spread of the lesion and to evaluate treatment options.

The early, middle and late stages of liver cancer are divided according to the severity of liver cancer spread. Since liver cancer is often discovered at a late stage, treatment is often busy with dealing with factors that directly affect life, focusing on controlling symptoms first, such as reducing ascites, regulating the biochemical balance, water and electrolyte balance in the body, etc., and does not take into account other factors. find the reason.

1. Surgical treatment

When talking about the treatment of liver cancer, you should first think that liver cancer is a tumor. The first treatment option considered is surgical resection, but the patient needs to be evaluated for surgery.

The first is whether the patient’s physical condition can withstand the surgical procedure, and the second is the severity of the tumor’s spread. If the patient is very weak, or the tumor has spread to multiple organs in the body and cannot be removed, even if surgery is performed, it will not have much effect on relieving the patient’s condition. In this case, surgery is not a good option. The surgery itself will cause pain to the patient and there are also surgical risks.

Who is suitable for surgical treatment? If the liver cancer lesion is relatively small and localized, and has not spread to other surrounding areas, surgery can be performed to remove the cancerous part.

Liver cells have strong repair and regeneration capabilities. Usually after 80% of the liver is removed, the remaining healthy liver cells can still undertake some liver tasks and can gradually regenerate and repair the liver. If the cancerous area is too large to be locally removed but has not spread, liver transplantation may be considered.

Speaking of liver transplantation, we need to talk about organ transplantation, which is a very sensitive topic at the moment. Organ transplantation requires a complete match between the donor and the recipient to ensure that the transplanted organ is not rejected by the recipient’s immune system. It is generally not easy to find a suitable donor. China has suddenly become a major organ transplant country in the past 20 years. However, China has not formed a normal organ donation mechanism and has no tradition of organ donation for a long time. So what exactly are these organs? Where does it come from?

According to officials, they are executed prisoners from China. The number of executed prisoners in China is very limited, far less than the number of transplants. What is the physical health of the prisoners? How many people qualify as organ donors? So far, Chinese officials have not provided a convincing explanation, which has cast a pall over the entire transplant community and added additional worries to patients who plan to obtain treatment through liver transplantation.

2. Ablation therapy

In addition to resection and transplantation, when the tumor is not very large, there are also ablation treatments. Common ones include radiofrequency ablation and chemical ablation. Radiofrequency ablation inserts a small electrode needle into the cancer cell site and directly kills the cancer cells through high-frequency heat. Chemical ablation kills tumors by positioning and injecting chemical drugs and using the principle of chemical drugs to coagulate proteins.

3. Arterial embolization therapy

Arterial embolization therapy is to block the arteries that provide blood to cancer cells, use a catheter, such as extending from the leg to reach the tumor site, and use sponges or other biological materials to block the arteries. The tumor will slowly shrink due to ischemia. This method will also have a certain impact on the normal liver, but this impact will be reduced by the compensation of hepatic venous blood.

Arterial embolization can also be used in combination with drug ablation. Before mechanical blockage, chemical drugs are first injected into the liver tumor through the catheter, and then the artery is blocked. Because the artery is clogged, the drug will stay at the tumor site for a longer time and the effect will be better. There is also direct injection of alcohol into the tumor site, which is also one of the ablation methods. These treatments will cause certain discomforts.

4. Chemotherapy

Traditional chemotherapy refers to the use of chemical drugs to kill cancer cells. It is usually treated with a combination of two to three chemotherapy drugs. The advantage of chemotherapy is that it can inhibit cancer cells more directly and effectively. The disadvantage is that it has side effects and the chemotherapy process is more painful. At the same time, it has a relatively large impact on the patient’s overall resistance and immune function, leading to complications and so on.

Chemotherapy can prolong life for some patients, but some patients will die because they cannot bear the side effects of chemotherapy.

5. Radiotherapy

The characteristic of radiotherapy is the use of radioactive rays to target cancerous parts, such as a certain point in the brain or a specific part of the bone, and use radiation to kill cancer cells. You can use a large radiation machine to hit the tumor site with the frequency of radiation from outside the body, or you can bury a small radiation probe near the tumor and use the probe radiation to kill tumor cells. These treatments are used for patients with inoperable or early-stage liver cancer.

While radiotherapy kills cancer cells, it also affects surrounding cells and tissues. However, compared with chemotherapy, its impact on the whole body is relatively less.

6. Other treatments

There is also a type of targeted therapy. Some new drugs have special affinity for liver cancer cells. Injecting such drugs into the tumor through a catheter can kill cancer cells more selectively. Targeted therapies are still in the process of development.

In addition, there are many auxiliary treatments, such as analgesia. For liver cancer patients, pain is a big problem. To control pain, there are drug and non-drug methods, such as blocking the nerves that feel pain. Of course, some radiotherapy will also reduce pain. These auxiliary treatments are all designed to reduce the patient’s pain.

In addition, liver cancer patients consume a lot of energy. After chemotherapy and radiotherapy, many patients’ blood cells are affected and they are prone to infection, bleeding, fatigue, etc., so they must ensure adequate nutrition. Many patients also experience great mental stress and anxiety. This emotional stress further leads to disorders of nervous, immune and endocrine functions, further reducing the body’s ability to fight tumors. Therefore, the treatment and adjustment of patients’ emotions are also important. Very important.

The above introduction to the treatment of liver cancer will be further discussed in the next issue about traditional Chinese medicine’s understanding of tumors, liver cancer and treatment methods, as well as how we can proactively improve the health of our livers and prevent the occurrence of liver cancer. @

Editor in charge: Li Fan

2023-10-12 23:19:57

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