Cancer - Liver

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a primary malignancy of the liver. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either hepatitis infection or cirrhosis. In countries where hepatitis is not endemic, most malignant cancers in the liver are not primary HCC but metastasis of cancer from elsewhere in the body, e.g. the colon. Treatment options of HCC and prognosis are dependent on many factors but especially on tumor size and staging.

Outside of the West, the commonly accepted prognosis is a median survival of 3 months from diagnosis. This is partially due to late presentation with large tumours, but also the lack of medical expertise and facilities.

In patients with a higher suspicion of HCC, the best method of diagnosis involves a CT scan of the abdomen using intravenous contrast agent and three-phase scanning to increase the ability of the radiologist to detect small or subtle tumors. It is important to optimize the parameters of the CT examination, because the underlying liver disease that most HCC patients have can make the findings more difficult to appreciate.

...More at Wikipedia  

Related Links:

• American Cancer Society
• National Cancer Institute
• US National Library of Medicine

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