Lauren Markish

Period 7/8

The liver is a very important organ in the human body. It does a lot to keep your body healthy. It removes harmful substances from your blood, makes enzymes and bile to help digest food, and converts food into substances needed for life and growth, such as vitamins and minerals. Because the liver is so important, liver cancer is that much more dangerous. Many people do not know much at all about liver cancer. It actually is not as rare of a cancer as people think. In fact, the risk of getting liver cancer is about 1 in every 100 men. For women, it is 1 in every 217. So, as you can see, the risk is greater for men. There are two types of liver cancer. The first type is Primary Liver Cancer. This is where the cancer starts off in the liver and stays there. The other type is Secondary Liver Cancer. In Secondary Liver Cancer, the cancer starts somewhere other than the liver and eventually spreads. Liver cancer can actually be prevented. Limited use of alcohol and tobacco will slim your chances of ever developing it. Also, a vaccine can be taken to protect you from hepatitis infections. Liver cancer, however, can also be genetic. In this case, it most likely cannot be prevented. Another cause of liver cancer is aflaxtoxin, which is a harmful substance made by certain types of mold. It can form on peanuts, corn, and other nuts and grains. However, the United States has safety measures that limit the amount of aflaxtoxin in the food supply. Obesity and Diabetes are two more diseases that can also lead to liver cancer. For most liver cancer patients, the cancer itself is not discovered early on. This is because the symptoms of it usually do not show up until later. Small liver tumors are hard to detect on a physical exam because the right rib cage covers the view of the liver. At this time,

there is no screening test accurate enough to discover liver cancer and be used with the general population. There are two different types of growths (tumors) that can be found. Benign tumors are the first type. They are rarely a threat to life. This is because they can be removed without growing back, they do not invade the tissues around them, and they do not spread to other parts of the body. The second type of tumor is called a Malignant growth. These tumors may be a threat to life, for when they are removed they can grow back. Also, they can invade the tissues around them and can spread to other parts of the body. The symptoms of liver cancer include weight loss, loss of appetite, feeling very full after a small meal, nausea or vomiting, fever, an enlarged liver, an enlarged spleen, constant pain in the abdomen, swelling or fluid build-up in the abdomen, itching, yellowing of the skin and eyes, enlarged veins on the belly that become visible through the skin, and worsening of the patient's condition if they have chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis. Many of these symptoms can be caused by other conditions, which makes it difficult to rule a patient as having liver cancer based solely on their symptoms. If a patient has symptoms that suggest liver cancer, there are several ways the doctor will test him or her to find out if they have it or not. A blood test is usually given to check for alphafetoprotein (AFP), since high AFP is a sign of liver cancer. Other tests that could be given include CT scans, MRIs, or an ultrasound. In some cases, a liver biopsy is performed. The purpose of a liver biopsy is to obtain tissue from the liver. This is so that a pathologist can use a microscope and look for cancer cells in the tissue. A biopsy can be performed in three different ways. The first is by inserting a needle through the skin. This way may require a CT scan or an

ultrasound to guide the needle. The second way of performing a liver biopsy is by laparoscopic surgery. During this, a surgeon makes a few small incisions in the patient's abdomen. Doing so allows the surgeon to insert a thin, lighted tube called a laparoscope. The laparoscope has a tool that will remove tissue from the liver. The last way to do a biopsy is through open surgery. This is where a surgeon will remove liver tissue through a large incision. Once someone is diagnosed with liver cancer, there are several treatment options. Choosing an option should be based on the number, size, and location of the tumors in the patient's liver. Also, it depends on how well the patient's liver is working and whether or not they have cirrhosis. However, a liver transplant or a resection (which is a removal of the tumor) offer the only reasonable chance to cure liver cancer. The procedure in which a surgeon removes part of the liver is called a hepatectomy. If all known cancer is successfully removed from the liver, the patient would have the best outlook of survival. Other options, such as chemotherapy, work to try and destroy the cancer cells with drugs. These options usually do not succeed, for the liver cancer cells usually resist the drugs. Even with surgery as an option, the percentage of liver cancer patients that live beyond five years after being diagnosed is a mere 21%. Liver cancer is the fastest rising cancer in the United States, and is the second deadliest. Approximately 600,000 people in the world die each year from liver cancer. The liver is a must-have for the human body to work correctly. New research is going on every day to try and find a cure for not only liver cancer, but for all liver-related diseases. Until the day that they do find a cure, a person can lower their chances of ever developing liver cancer

by simply taking good care of their body. This means keeping themselves at a healthy weight (so as to not develop diabetes), limiting alcohol consumption, and avoiding the use of tobacco.

Bibliography
1 - Abou-Alfa, Ghassan. 100 Q&A About Liver Cancer. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009 2 - American Cancer Society. Liver Cancer Guide (Pdf Booklet). http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/003114-pdf.pdf Copyright 2009 3 - What You Need to Know About Liver Cancer (Online Booklet). http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/liver.pdf Copyright 2009 4Liver Cancer. Mayo Clinic Staff. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/liver-cancer/DS00399 Copyright 2009 5 - Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Liver Cancer). Keith E. Stuart, MD. http://www.medicinenet.com/liver_cancer/article.htm