Understanding Secondary Liver Cancer: Treatment Options & Outlook

Secondary liver cancer is a type of cancer that starts elsewhere within the body, then spreads to the liver. In general, types of cancers that move to the liver start in the breast, pancreas, bowel, lung, stomach, ovary or skin. In certain situations, secondary liver cancer is first detected in the liver, and it is not really possible to find the origin of the initial cancer. This may be because the first cancer tumor was too small to detect through medical testing.

Treatment

• The goal of secondary liver cancer treatment is to control the cancer for a long while and to reduce symptoms. The most common secondary liver cancer treatments are surgery and chemotherapy, although many people also undergo hormonal therapy or radiation therapy treatments.

Surgery

• In situations in which the cancer has moved to the liver from a bowel cancer, surgery is a good option. Surgeries are commonly practiced when the cancer cells affect only one part of the liver and there is no cancer anywhere else inside the body. In these cases, surgery can often completely cure secondary liver cancer.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy is by far the most common type of secondary liver cancer treatment. In many cases, if chemotherapy treatment worked successfully for an individual suffering from the initial cancer (whether it's lung, stomach, skin or anything else), then it will probably work well for the secondary liver cancer treatment.

Radiation and Hormonal Therapies

• Generally, when hormonal therapies are used for secondary liver cancer treatment, they are used for cancers that originate in the breast. Radiotherapy treatments are not common for the actual treatment of secondary liver cancers. However, radiotherapy is very helpful for soothing sickness, discomfort and pain associated with secondary liver cancer.

Considerations

• The treatment options for secondary liver cancer depend on a variety of important factors, including which areas of the liver are affected by the cancer, whether or not the cancer has had an effect on other areas of the body and where the primary cancer was located.