What is Liver cancer?
What is Liver cancer?
- Liver cancer: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver.
- Liver cancer: malignant neoplastic disease of the liver usually occurring as a metastasis from another cancer; symptoms include loss of appetite and weakness and bloating and jaundice and upper abdominal discomfort.
Source - WordNet 2.1
Liver cancer is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of
Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH). This means that Liver cancer, or a subtype of Liver cancer,
affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.
Source - National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Liver cancer: Introduction
Types of Liver cancer:
Types of Liver cancer:
- Cell types affected:
- Hepatocellular carcinoma - primary liver cancer (hepatoma); also called "malignant hepatoma".
- Secondary liver cancer - caused by metastasis of some other non-liver cancer cell type.
- Stage of liver cancer:
- Localized resectable liver cancer - a local cancer than can be treated with partial liver surgery.
- Localized unresectable cancer - not treatable by local liver surgery, but not spread to lymph nodes.
- Childhood hepatocellular carcinoma - also called "hepatoblastoma"
- more types...»
Broader types of Liver cancer:
How many people get Liver cancer?
Incidence (annual) of Liver cancer: 16,600 annual cases (SEER 2002 estimate)
Incidence Rate of Liver cancer: approx 1 in 16,385 or 0.01% or 16,600 people in USA [about data]
Who gets Liver cancer?
Patient Profile for Liver cancer: Mostly adults, often 60 or older
Profile for Liver cancer: In the United States, liver cancer occurs
more often in people over age 60 than in younger
people. (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Liver Cancer: NCI)
Gender Profile for Liver cancer: Men 2:1 women.
Gender Profile for Liver cancer: Men are twice as likely as women to
get liver cancer. (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Liver Cancer: NCI)
How serious is Liver cancer?
Prognosis of Liver cancer: Overall prognosis for survival depends on the extent of cirrhosis and tumor stage, which then determine the appropriate treatment. Patients able to undergo a curative resection have a median survival of as long as 4 years; patients who present when they are too ill to be treated have a median survival of 3 months.
Complications of Liver cancer:
see complications of Liver cancer
Average life years lost for Liver cancer: 16.0 years for liver/IBD cancers (SEER)1
Deaths for Liver cancer: 12.382 deaths reported in USA 1999 for cancer of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts (NVSR Sep 2001)
What causes Liver cancer?
Causes of Liver cancer: see causes of Liver cancer
Risk factors for Liver cancer:
see
risk factors for Liver cancer
What are the symptoms of Liver cancer?
Symptoms of Liver cancer:
see symptoms of Liver cancer
Complications of Liver cancer:
see complications of Liver cancer
Onset of Liver cancer: Age at diagnosis varies widely according to geographic distribution. In the United States and Europe, the median age at diagnosis is 65 years. Hepatocellular carcinoma is rarely diagnosed in persons younger than 40 years. In Africa and Asia, age at diagnosis is substantially younger, occurring in the fourth and fifth decades of life.
Can anyone else get Liver cancer?
Contagion of cancer: generally not; see details in contagion of cancer.
Liver cancer: Testing
Diagnostic testing: see tests for Liver cancer.
Misdiagnosis: see misdiagnosis and Liver cancer.
How is it treated?
Doctors and Medical Specialists for Liver cancer: Oncologists, Radiation oncologists, Gastroenterologists, Surgeons, Transplant surgeons
;
see also doctors and medical specialists for Liver cancer.
Treatments for Liver cancer:
see treatments for Liver cancer
Research for Liver cancer:
see research for Liver cancer
Society issues for Liver cancer
Hospitalization statistics for Liver cancer:
The following are statistics from various sources about hospitalizations and Liver cancer:
- 0.05% (6,423) of hospital consultant episodes were for malignant neoplasm of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 80% of hospital consultant episodes for required hospital admission in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 62% of hospital consultant episodes for malignant neoplasm of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts were for men in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- 38% of hospital consultant episodes for malignant neoplasm of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts were for women in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
- more statistics...»
Organs Affected by Liver cancer:
Organs and body systems related to Liver cancer include:
Name and Aliases of Liver cancer
Main name of condition: Liver cancer
Class of Condition for Liver cancer: cancer
Other names or spellings for Liver cancer:
Cancer of the Liver, Malignancies of the liver, hepatoma, Hepatocellular carcinoma
Liver cancer, Cancer of the liver
Source - WordNet 2.1
Research the causes of these diseases that are similar to, or related to, Liver cancer:
Hepatitis C is called a silent epidemic because many people are unaware they carry this virus of the liver. But experts say hepatitis C is a public...
Many people with viral hepatitis don't know they are infected. Listen as experts discuss who should be tested and review the causes, prevention...
Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver often spread through sexual contact. But people are usually unaware they carry the virus. Find out if...
Liver transplants are the last source of hope for many patients with advanced liver disease. But not all patients are eligible for transplants, and...
See full list of 10 related videos
» Next page: Online Medical Textbooks for Liver cancer
Rate This Website
What do you think about the features of this website?
Take our user survey and have your say:
Website User Survey
Medical Tools & Articles:
Next articles:
Tools & Services:
Medical Articles:
Forums & Message Boards
- Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
