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Liver Cancer: Causes, Symptoms, Prevention & Treatment

Liver cancer is more common in the developing countries of Africa and East Asia than in the United States. However, the American Cancer society estimates that new cases of liver cancer and bile duct cancer (a special form of liver cancer) during 2006 exceed 18,000. They estimate that just over 16,000 people will die of liver cancer during the period of a year.

As the largest internal organ in the body, the liver performs several functions vital to our health. The liver helps remove toxic wastes from the body and emits bile into the intestine to help absorb nutrients. It processes and stores many nutrients absorbed from the intestine and also helps triggers our blood to clot to stop bleeding from a cut or injury.

The liver is complex and made of many different types of cells. As a result, several types of tumors can form in the liver. While each type of cancerous tumor has different causes and its own unique treatment, all are considered forms of liver cancer.

Types of Liver Cancer
Most cases of liver cancer are metastatic cancer, cancer that originated somewhere else in the body but spread to the liver. For example, cancer that started in the lung and spread to the liver is called metastatic lung cancer.

One of the main types of liver cancer that originates in the liver itself is hepatocellular carcinoma (huh-pat-uh-CELL-u-lar car-sin-o-muh). As the most common type of liver cancer in adults, heptaocellular carcinoma affects the main liver cells, known as hepatocytes.

While it may begin as a single tumor that grows larger, it can start as a small tumor that starts creating other small tumors in other areas of the liver. One subtype of liver cancer is fibrolamellar. While it is a form of liver cancer that usually has the best outlook, it is also a relatively rare form of liver cancer.

Liver cancer that is not confined to a single tumor, but rather spreads through out the liver is common among those with cirrhosis of the liver.

Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as Bile Duct Cancer, makes up about ten to twenty percent of the liver cancer cases. This type of liver cancer starts in the tubes that carry bile to the gallbladder.

The Risk Factors of Liver Cancer
Anything that affects a person's chance of getting a disease is called a risk factor. However, having a risk factor for liver cancer, or any type of cancer for that matter, does not automatically mean that a person will develop liver cancer. Rather, it means that they are more likely to develop it. Risk factors for liver cancer include:

• Aflatoxins: These substances are made by a fungus that can contaminate peanuts, wheat, soybeans, corn and rice. Long-term exposure to aflatoxins can increase the risk of liver cancer. In the United States and Europe, foods that may be at risk for containing aflatoxins are tested for them. In developing countries, these foods are not always tested.
   
  
• Alcohol abuse: People who abuse alcohol may be increase their risk for liver cancer.
  
  
• Anabolic steroids: Some athletes use anabolic steroids to increase their strength. Long-term use of these can slightly increase the risk of liver cancer.
  
  
• Arsenic: Drinking water contaminated with arsenic increases the risk of liver cancer. In modernized, industrialized cultures, water tends to be clean of arsenic.
  
  
• Birth control pills: Older forms of birth control pills may slightly increase the risk of liver cancer. While birth control pills are now made differently, there are no studies on if their potential to put women at risk for liver cancer.
  
  
• Certain types of liver disease: A chronic hepatitis B or C infection is a major liver cancer risk.
  
  
• Cirrhosis: Cirrhosis is the result of scar tissue in the liver. The major causes of liver cirrhosis in the United States are alcohol abuse and hepatitis B and C.
   
  
• Diabetes: This disease can increase the risk of liver cancer, especially in people who have other risk factors such as heavy drinking or hepatitis B or C.
  
  
• Gender: Men are more likely to get liver cancer than are women.
  
  
• Obesity: Obesity may increase the risk of getting liver cancer.
   
  
• Smoking: There is a link between smoking and liver cancer.
  
  
• Vinyl chloride and thorium dioxide (Thorotrast): These chemicals are risk factors for several types of liver cancer. However, exposure to thorotrast and vinyl chloride is rare, as both substances are controlled.

Preventing Liver Cancer
Worldwide, the biggest risk factor for liver cancer is a hepatitis B or C infection. You can prevent this infection by getting a hepatitis B vaccine (as a child or an adult).

In the United States, alcohol abuse, a leading cause of cirrhosis, is the major risk factor in causing liver cancer.

Liver Cancer Symptoms & Treatment
Because liver cancer usually does not cause symptoms until its later stages, most liver cancer cases aren't diagnosed until the later stages. Unfortunately, there are no screening tests for liver cancer, making small liver cancer tumors hard to detect. People who have hepatitis B or C or cirrhosis should be regularly tested for liver cancer.

While the following symptoms could be caused by liver cancer, they may also be symptoms of other conditions:

• becoming sicker if you have chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis 
• suffering from chronic stomach pain 
• feeling very full after a small meal 
• feeling liver swelling or a mass in the area of the liver 
• lacking an appetite 
• swelling in the stomach area 
• losing weight for no known reason
• yellow-green coloring to the skin and eyes.