Liver Cancer

Treatment

Hepatologists and other specialists at Mayo Clinic treat liver cancer with state-of-the-art surgery, radiological procedures, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other innovative treatments.

Surgery

If the tumor has not spread outside the liver, the treatment team may recommend surgery. Surgical options include:

• Liver resection: removing the part of the liver that contains the tumor.
• Radiofrequency ablation: destroying the tumor with heat generated by electrical current.
• Alcohol ablation: destroying the tumor with injections of pure alcohol.
• Liver transplant: replacing the diseased liver with a healthy one from a donor.

Radiological Procedures

Physicians use imaging to guide the delivery of agents used in some surgical treatments. In ablation, a needle or other therapeutic device is placed through the skin to put drugs directly into the tumor to kill the cancer cells. During embolization, a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel supplying the tumor. Cancer cells are then killed by injecting blocking agents to obstruct the tumor's blood supply. Chemotherapy drugs can be delivered through a catheter into arteries that supply the tumor.

In radiofrequency ablation a thin probe, guided by CT or ultrasound imaging, is inserted into the tumor. Electrical energy heats the probe, which destroys tumor cells.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy can destroy cancer cells and reduce a tumor's size by directing high-dose radiation directly to the liver. Radiation is less commonly used than surgery and chemotherapy, but it is appropriate for certain liver cancers and can be combined with other therapies.

Radioembolization is another treatment option for some patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Specialists inject radioactive glass microbeads through branches of the hepatic artery (the major artery supplying blood to the liver) into the diseased region of the liver. The microscopic beads lodge in small blood capillaries in the cancer and deliver radiation internally. Because the beads do not completely block the hepatic artery, patients can still subsequently be treated with chemoembolization, if necessary. Radioembolization is available in Florida and Minnesota.

Chemotherapy

Drugs used to combat liver cancer can be delivered to the whole body or to a specific location. Chemotherapy is usually given via a vein. Some patients have an infusion pump placed under the skin of the abdomen to deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver. The infusion pump can be refilled with drugs as needed.

Chemoembolization is often used successfully to treat hepatocellular carcinoma. Radiologists thread a small catheter through the femoral artery in the groin into the blood vessels of the tumor. They inject chemotherapy into the diseased region of the liver, while blocking the hepatic artery (the major artery supplying blood to the liver). This approach ensures the drugs remain in the tissue surrounding the tumor and may permit a larger dose of chemotherapy to be given.

Other Innovative Treatments

Experimental radiation techniques involve attaching radioactive substances to antibodies, the human body's immune response to invasion. The antibodies attack the cancer cells.

Experimental agents are being evaluated to treat malignant liver tumors that cannot be surgically removed.