Liver Cancer

Primary liver cancer is a condition that happens when normal cells in the liver become abnormal in appearance and behavior. The cancer cells can then become destructive to adjacent normal tissues, and can spread both to other areas of the liver and to organs outside the liver.

Malignant or cancerous cells that develop in the normal cells of the liver (hepatocytes) are called hepatocellular carcinoma. A cancer that arises in the ducts of the liver is called cholangiocarcinoma.

Liver cancer begins in the tissues of the liver, an organ that sits in the upper right portion of the abdomen, beneath the diaphragm and above the stomach. The liver has many functions. It helps store nutrients from food, aids with digestion and clears toxins from the body.

You cannot live without your liver. It has several important functions:

• It breaks down and stores many of the nutrients absorbed from the intestine that your body needs to function. Some nutrients must be changed (metabolized) in the liver before they can be used for energy or to build and repair body tissues.
• It makes most of the clotting factors that keep you from bleeding too much when you are cut or injured.
• It secretes bile into the intestines to help absorb nutrients (especially fats).
• It breaks down alcohol, drugs, and toxic wastes in the blood, which then pass from the body through urine and stool