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 can be affected by primary liver cancer, which arises in the liver, or by cancer which forms in other parts of the body and then spreads to the liver.
Some other symptoms are swelling of abdomen (fluid in abdomen), upper abdominal pain, itching, passing white coloured stools, etc.
If the cancer is small, has not spread outside the liver and the rest of the liver is healthy, Hepatectomy is a possibility. A liver transplant is another option but only suitable for a small number of cases.
Ablative therapy
In India, out of 25,000 patients with liver failure, only 1,100 patients undergo liver transplant. Of this, only 5 per cent is performed in Western India due to the lack of a comprehensive facility. To bridge this gap, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has started a comprehensive liver transplant programme, transplanting livers both from living donors and cadavers. It is the first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art comprehensive liver transplant centre in Western India.
Continued to liver, surgical removal (liver resection). In the presence of chronic liver diseases, they are best treated by liver transplant.
Best treated by surgery if liver is only site of spread. In selected cases, surgery offered, best outcomes in others (radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be offered).
Patients with multiple tumours (primary/secondary) are offered conserved modality in the form of surgery with Ablative therapy.
11 per cent of liver transplant patients were operated for primary liver tumour.For massive tumour involving portion of liver, staged hepatectomy is being offered as a curative option.