ENWhat is liver cancer? What are the symptoms and treatment methods?
liver cancer
Liver cancers are malignant tumors that arise from the organs own tissue. The incidence of the disease varies regionally. While the disease is an important public health problem, especially in regions where Hepatitis B infection is common, the disease is a less common type of cancer in developed countries where vaccination is effective. It is more common in men than in women. Hepatocellular carcinoma originating from the hepatocyte, the functional cell of the liver, constitutes approximately 90% of liver cancers. The remaining ones are tumors called cholangiocarcinoma, which mostly originate from the bile ducts within the liver. The most common tumors in the liver are metastases. Metastasis is the spread of cancer from another organ or tissue to the liver. Cancers from almost any part of the body can spread to the liver.
Liver cancer symptoms
Many patients with liver cancer do not have any symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, even if there are no complaints, especially in high-risk patients such as cirrhosis, follow-up is very important for early diagnosis. Liver cancers are usually caused by bloating in the abdomen, yellowing of the skin, itching, pain starting from the upper right part of the abdomen and radiating to the back, sudden weight loss, loss of appetite for weeks, feeling of fullness and bloating after eating despite eating very little, fever, sweating at night, sudden deterioration in general health, urination. It manifests itself with symptoms of jaundice such as darkening in color and pale stools. Although most of these symptoms are severe symptoms, they are not distinguishing symptoms for liver cancer because all of them can be caused by another condition such as infection.
Liver cancer causes and risk factors
Although the cause of liver cancer is not known for certain, there are some diseases or substances that are thought to be responsible for the disease and increase the risk significantly. Having jaundice due to hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses and being a virus carrier are the most important underlying reasons. Liver cancer may occur years after such viral infections. You can have the disease without having any complaints about hepatitis viruses, and it can only be understood that you have the disease with blood tests. Scar caused by liver cirrhosis (5% of cirrhosis patients have a risk of liver cancer), liver adenoma, some carcinogenic substances found in foods, some drugs and metabolic diseases such as hemachromatosis, intake of anabolic steroids, fatty liver, family history of liver cancer, grains. Poisons called aflatoxins produced by living fungi called Aspergillus, smoking, arsenic, a poison found in drinking water, diabetes, being overweight, having a weak immunity and using some types of birth control pills, alcohol (1 in every 3 cases of liver cancer (i) occurs due to alcohol) is among the causes of liver cancer.
How is liver cancer detected?
Although the chance of early diagnosis of liver cancer is very low, it is possible to catch the disease before it progresses to advanced stages with regular check-ups, especially in high-risk patients. The disease can be diagnosed with ultrasonography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance. An alpha-fetoprotein test is also performed.
Liver cancer treatment
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver cancer and different treatment options are available. The treatment method that patients benefit most from is surgical treatment. Removing a part of the liver to contain the tumors or liver transplantation are treatment options. What is taken into consideration during surgery is that the remaining liver is of sufficient quality and size for the patient. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, methods in which the tumor is burned (ablation therapy) or nuclear medicine treatments with microspheres can be applied in tumors for which surgery is not suitable or in patients who are thought to be unable to undergo these major surgeries.