Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma varies by the stage of disease, a person's likelihood to tolerate surgery, and availability of liver transplant: # Curative intention: for limited disease, when the cancer is limited to one or more areas of within the liver, surgically removing the malignant cells may be curative. This may be accomplished by resection the affected portion of the liver (partial hepatectomy) or in some cases by orthotopic liver transplantation of the entire organ. # "Bridging" intention: for limited disease which qualifies for potential liver transplantation, the person may undergo targeted treatment of some or all of the known tumor while waiting for a donor organ to become available. # "Downstaging" intention: for moderately advanced disease which has not spread beyond the liver, but is too advanced to qualify for curative treatment. The person may be treated by targeted therapies in order to reduce the size or number of active tumors, with the goal of once again qualifying for liver transplant after this treatment. # Palliative intention: for more advanced disease, including spread of cancer beyond the liver or in persons who may not tolerate surgery, treatment intended to decrease symptoms of disease and maximize duration of survival. Loco-regional therapy (also referred to as liver-directed therapy) refers to any one of several minimally-invasive treatment techniques to focally target HCC within the liver. These procedures are alternatives to surgery, and may be considered in combination with other strategies, such as a later liver transplantation. Generally, these treatment procedures are performed by interventional radiologists or surgeons, in coordination with a medical oncologist. Loco-regional therapy may refer to either percutaneous therapies (e.g. cryoablation), or arterial catheter-based therapies (chemoembolization or radioembolization). Surgical resection Gross anatomy of hepatocellular carcinoma Surgical removal of the tumor is associated with better cancer prognosis, but only 5–15% of patients are suitable for surgical resection due to the extent of disease or poor liver function. Surgery is only considered if the entire tumor can be safely removed while preserving sufficient functional liver to maintain normal physiology. Thus, preoperative imaging assessment is critical to determine both the extent of HCC and to estimate the amount of residual liver remaining after surgery. To maintain liver function, residual liver volume should exceed 25% of total liver volume in a noncirrhotic liver, greater than 40% in a cirrhotic liver. Surgery on diseased or cirrhotic livers is generally associated with higher morbidity and mortality. The overall recurrence rate after resection is 50–60%. The Singapore Liver Cancer Recurrence score can be used to estimate risk of recurrence after surgery. Liver transplantation Liver transplantation, replacing the diseased liver with a cadaveric or a living donor liver, plays an increasing role in treatment of HCC. Although outcomes following liver transplant were initially poor (20%–36% survival rate), outcomes have significantly improved with improvement in surgical techniques and adoption of the Milan criteria at US transplantation centers. Expanded Shanghai criteria in China have resulted in overall survival and disease-free survival rates similar to those achieved using the Milan criteria. Studies from the late 2000s obtained higher survival rates ranging from 67% to 91%. The risks of liver transplantation extend beyond risk of the procedure itself. The immunosuppressive medication required after surgery to prevent rejection of the donor liver also impairs the body's natural ability to combat dysfunctional cells. If the tumor has spread undetected outside the liver before the transplant, the medication effectively increases the rate of disease progression and decreases survival. With this in mind, liver transplant "can be a curative approach for patients with advanced HCC without extrahepatic metastasis". In fact, among patients with compensated cirrhosis, transplantation is not associated with improved survival compared to hepatectomy, but instead is significantly more expensive. Patient selection is considered a major key for success. Ablation * Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses high-frequency radio waves to destroy tumor by local heating. The electrodes are inserted into the liver tumor under ultrasound image guidance using percutaneous, laparoscopic or open surgical approach. It is suitable for small tumors (5 cm, 2.1 to 5 cm, and ≤2 cm were 59, 74, and 91%, respectively. A large randomized trial comparing surgical resection and RFA for small HCC showed similar four-year survival and less morbidities for patients treated with RFA. * Cryoablation is a technique used to destroy tissue using cold temperature. The tumor is not removed and the destroyed cancer is left to be reabsorbed by the body. Initial results in properly selected patients with unresectable liver tumors are equivalent to those of resection. Cryosurgery involves the placement of a stainless steel probe into the center of the tumor. Liquid nitrogen is circulated through the end of this device. The tumor and a half inch margin of normal liver are frozen to −190 °C for 15 minutes, which is lethal to all tissues. The area is thawed for 10 minutes and then refrozen to −190 °C for another 15 minutes. After the tumor has thawed, the probe is removed, bleeding is controlled, and the procedure is complete. The patient spends the first postoperative night in the intensive care unit and typically is discharged in 3–5 days. Proper selection of patients and attention to detail in performing the cryosurgical procedure are mandatory to achieve good results and outcomes. Frequently, cryosurgery is used in conjunction with liver resection, as some of the tumors are removed while others are treated with cryosurgery. * Percutaneous ethanol injection is well tolerated, with high RR in small (8 cm), the presence of portal vein thrombus, tumors with a portal-systemic shunt, and patients with poor liver function. * Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) can be used to destroy the tumor from within (thus minimizing exposure to healthy tissue). Similar to TACE, this is a procedure in which an interventional radiologist selectively injects the artery or arteries supplying the tumor with a chemotherapeutic agent. The agent is typically Yttrium-90 (Y-90) incorporated into embolic microspheres that lodge in the tumor vasculature, causing ischemia and delivering their radiation dose directly to the lesion. This technique allows for a higher, local dose of radiation to be delivered directly to the tumor while sparing normal healthy tissue. While not curative, patients have increased survival. No studies have been done to compare whether SIRT is superior to TACE in terms of survival outcomes, although retrospective studies suggest similar efficacy. Two products are available, SIR-Spheres and TheraSphere. The latter is an FDA-approved treatment for primary liver cancer (HCC) which has been shown in clinical trials to increase the survival rate of low-risk patients. SIR-Spheres are FDA-approved for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, but outside the US, SIR-Spheres are approved for the treatment of any nonresectable liver cancer including primary liver cancer. External beam therapy * The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma has evolved as technological advancements in treatment delivery and imaging have provided a means for safe and effective radiotherapy delivery in a wide spectrum of HCC patients. In metastatic cases, radiotherapy can be used for palliative care. * Proton therapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma was associated with improved survival relative to photon-based radiation therapy which may be driven by decreased incidence of post-treatment liver decompensation and a number of randomized controlled trials are currently ongoing. Systemic In disease which has spread beyond the liver, systemic therapy may be a consideration. In 2007, Sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, was the first systemic agent approved for first-line treatment of advanced HCC. Trials have found modest improvement in overall survival: 10.7 months vs 7.9 months and 6.5 months vs 4.2 months. The most common side effects of Sorafenib include a hand-foot skin reaction and diarrhea. Sorafenib is thought to work by blocking growth of both tumor cells and new blood vessels. Numerous other molecular targeted drugs are being tested as alternative first- and second-line treatments for advanced HCC. Other * Portal vein embolization (PVE): This technique is sometimes used to increase the volume of healthy liver, in order to improve chances of survival following surgical removal of diseased liver. For example, embolization of the right main portal vein would result in compensatory hypertrophy of the left lobe, which may qualify the patient for a partial hepatectomy. Embolization is performed by an interventional radiologist using a percutaneous transhepatic approach. This procedure can also serve as a bridge to transplant. * High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) (as opposed to diagnostic ultrasound) is an experimental technique which uses high-powered ultrasound waves to destroy tumor tissue. * A systematic review assessed 12 articles involving a total of 318 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with Yttrium-90 radioembolization. Excluding a study of only one patient, post-treatment CT evaluation of the tumor showed a response ranging from 29 to 100% of patients evaluated, with all but two studies showing a response of 71% or greater.
complications of Hepatitis B
complications of Hepatitis A
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medical cause of Hepatitis
medical cause of Liver cancer
symptom of Hepatitis B
complications of Amoebiasis
complications of Cholera