Liver Cancer Treatment at World Class Hospitals in India.
Liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular cancer, is a cancer that originates in the liver itself. If the cancer originates in another part of the body and spreads to the liver, it is known as liver metastases. Tumors that originate in the colon, lung, breast, pancreas, stomach, and other organs and spread to the liver through the bloodstream can also give rise to liver cancer.
The Liver continuously filters blood that circulates through the body, converting nutrients and drugs absorbed from the digestive tract into ready-to-use chemicals. The liver performs many other important functions, such as removing toxins and other chemical waste products from the blood and readying them for excretion. Because all the blood in the body must pass through it, the liver is unusually accessible to cancer cells travelling in the bloodstream.
Two Major Types of Liver Cancers are:
Primary liver cancer begins in the liver itself. Although it’s less commonly seen than secondary liver cancer, primary liver cancer rates are on the rise in the United States.
Primary liver cancer is most commonly caused by Hepatitis B and C, diseases that affect the blood and, in turn, cells called hepatocytes, which are the main type of liver cell. These diseases can be contracted from a variety of sources, including sexual or blood-borne contact. This form of cancer is called hepatocellular carcinoma. It is the most common type of liver cancer throughout the developing world.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (or HCC) also can be caused by cirrhosis of the liver, which can be related to heavy alcohol consumption and is characterized by scar tissue replacing liver tissue. The rise in HCC in the United States, and particularly in Texas, however, is also being driven by our increasingly obese population and rising incidence of diabetes.
Another form of primary liver cancer – cholangiocarcinoma – results from cancerous cells originating in the bile ducts of the liver. While less common than HCC, cholangiocarcinoma is also on the rise in the United States.
Secondary (metastatic) liver cancer is a type of cancer that has spread to the liver from another area in the body. In the United States, this type of cancer is more common than primary liver cancer.
About 50 percent of all metastatic liver cancer spreads from the colon to the liver. (Fortunately, sometimes surgery can be offered when the cancer has only spread to the liver.) Cancer also can spread to the liver from cancer of the breast, ovaries, pancreas, lungs, and other places.
The liver is particularly susceptible to the spread (metastasis) of cancer because of the liver’s role as the body’s filter. All blood in the body passes through the liver at some point. To accomplish this, two major blood supply vessels go to the liver, the hepatic artery and the portal vein. Because of the rich supply of blood and constant circulation, the liver has an increased chance that diseased cells will pass through it and take hold.
Treatment Options available for Liver Cancer Treatment at World Class Hospitals in India
Surgery
Surgery to Remove the Tumor.In certain situations, your doctor may recommend an operation to remove the liver cancer and a small portion of healthy liver tissue that surrounds it if your tumor is small and your liver function is good.
Whether this is an option for you also depends on the location of your cancer within the liver, how well your liver functions and your overall health.
Liver Transplant Surgery. During liver transplant surgery, your diseased liver is removed and replaced with a healthy liver from a donor. Liver transplant surgery is only an option for a small percentage of people with early-stage liver cancer.
Chemotherapy
1. Chemotherapy may be used before surgery to destroy cancer cells. It also allows your oncologist to determine the effects of a particular liver cancer treatment regimen on the tumor.
2. Chemotherapy is used after surgery or radiation to target cancer cells that were not removed during liver cancer surgery, and helps prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of your body.
3. Systemic chemotherapy, meaning the circulation of chemotherapy drugs through the bloodstream to cancer cells through the body, plays an important role in the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic primary liver cancer.
Radiation therapy
Another option for tumors that cannot be surgically removed is treatment with high-energy rays or radiation therapy. Radiation can be given externally from special equipment that positions the patient and delivers doses of radiation from the outside of the body to very precisely target internal cancer cells. The primary goal of this treatment is the relief of symptoms.
Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy x-rays or other particles to destroy cancer cells. A doctor who specializes in giving radiation therapy to treat cancer is called a radiation oncologist.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a term that describes several methods of delivering high doses of radiation to a tumor while limiting the amount of radiation to which healthy tissues are exposed. This is important because healthy liver tissue can be damaged by radiation. SBRT effectively treats tumors that are about 5 cm or smaller. However, it is still considered investigational compared to RFA (see above) because there is not much available information about its long-term effectiveness.
Nonsurgical Treatments for Liver Cancer at World Class Hospitals in India
Chemoembolization : Before Insertion of the tiny particles that block the blood flow an anticancer drug is injected into the artery. The drug stays in the liver for longer without blood flow, and thus the impact is more.
Radiofrequency Ablation : For inoperable liver tumors, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) offers a nonsurgical, localized treatment that kills the tumor cells with heat, while sparing the healthy liver tissue. Thus, this treatment is much easier on the patient than systemic therapy.
Cryosurgery : It is a treatment that uses an instrument to freeze and destroy abnormal tissue, such as cancerous cells. This type of treatment is also called Cryotherapy. The doctor may use ultrasound to guide the instrument.
Percutaneous Ethanol Injection : Percutaneous ethanol injection is a cancer treatment in which a small needle is used to inject ethanol (alcohol) directly into a tumor to kill cancer cells. The procedure may be done once or twice a week. Usually local anesthesia is used, but if the patient has many tumors in the liver, general anesthesia may be needed.
Hyperthermia Therapy : Hyperthermia therapy is a type of treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures to damage and kill cancer cells or to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiation and certain anticancer drugs. Because some cancer cells are more sensitive to heat than normal cells are, the cancer cells die and the tumor shrinks.
Biologic Therapy : Biologic therapy is a treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Substances made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, direct, or restore the body’s natural defenses against cancer. This type of cancer treatment is also called biotherapy or immunotherapy.
Best Hospitals in India for Liver Cancer Treatment
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