Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

Stages

Your healthcare team uses the results from diagnostic tests and procedures to give your cancer a stage. The stage tells your healthcare team about how severe your cancer is and how well your liver is working.

There are different systems used for hepatocellular carcinoma staging. Some use numbers and some use letters. One system that is commonly used is called the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer Staging System. This system has five stages. It uses the number 0 for the earliest stage of cancer and letters A through D for the other stages.

Using this staging system, the stages of hepatocellular carcinoma are:

• Stage 0, also called very early stage. Stage 0 hepatocellular carcinoma means there is one growth of cancer cells, called a tumor, in the liver that is smaller than 2 centimeters (a little more than 3/4 inch). The tumor has not spread to blood vessels or outside the liver.
• Stage A, also called early stage. Stage A hepatocellular carcinoma means there is one tumor in the liver that is larger than 2 centimeters (a little more than 3/4 inch). Or it may mean that there are up to three tumors that are each smaller than 3 centimeters (a little more than 1 inch). The tumors have not spread to blood vessels or outside the liver.
• Stage B, also called intermediate stage. Stage B hepatocellular carcinoma means there are more tumors than stage A and they may be larger. The tumors may affect different parts of the liver. The tumors have not spread to blood vessels or outside the liver.
• Stage C, also called advanced stage. Stage C hepatocellular carcinoma means the tumors have grown to involve the blood vessels or the cancer cells have spread beyond the liver. When cancer spreads away from where it started, it's called metastatic cancer.
• Stage D, also called end stage. Stage D hepatocellular carcinoma means the liver is not healthy enough to have treatment. This is because cirrhosis is so severe. The healthcare team might focus on comfort care, rather than trying to cure the cancer.