Secondary Liver Cancer Prognosis

Early symptoms of liver cancer are very vague and are generally overlooked or misinterpreted. When cancer that originated in other parts of the body spreads into the liver, it is called secondary or metastatic liver cancer. Secondary liver cancer prognosis is generally not very encouraging; but specific medications, naturopathy medicines, nutritional therapy, mind-body medicine, and spiritual support can help fight the cancer. Metastatic liver cancer prognosis is nothing but the medical opinion that gives an idea about whether it is possible to remove cancer completely or whether the patient is likely to have a recurrence.

Secondary liver cancer can originate from any primary cancer developed at various sites such as ovary, uterus, prostate, lung, kidney, breast, stomach and colon. In more than 50% of the cases, it has been observed that secondary liver cancer often results from the spread of primary colorectal cancer. If the primary tumor is very small and asymptomatic, medical tests cannot detect the origin of secondary liver cancer. This condition is known as unknown primary cancer.

Liver plays an important role in removing toxins from the blood. Since each and every drop of blood passes through the liver, the liver is the most likely place for cancer cells to grow, or rather, it is often attacked first. In most cases, metastatic spread is noticed in the liver first. It should be borne in mind that diagnosis of secondary or metastatic liver cancer does not always mean that the cancer cells have also invaded some more organs of the body. Therefore early diagnosis is very important. The prognosis for early stage secondary liver cancer can be comparatively favorable.

Metastatic Liver Cancer

Symptoms

• Abdominal pain
• Jaundice
• Loss of appetite
• Undesired weight loss
• Fever
• Dark-colored urine
• Pale-colored stools
• Very itchy skin
• Nausea
• Lethargy, fatigue
• Enlarged spleen
• Pain in right shoulder can be experienced
• Ascites, or swelling in the abdominal cavity resulting from fluid build-up
• Upper right quadrant pain or vague discomfort in the upper, right quadrant of the abdomen due to an enlargement of the liver.

Usually, secondary liver cancer is discovered during simple routine tests; because most of the time, liver cancer does not exhibit any symptoms for a long period of time. But, having the symptoms that are described above, does not necessarily mean that you have liver cancer. These symptoms can be noticed in a variety of other conditions as well. Prompt checking is therefore very important. And when a person gets diagnosed with secondary liver cancer, it is necessary that he receives all the information regarding his condition and about the various treatment options.

Tests
After knowing about the symptoms, the doctor examines the patient physically and orders one or more of the following tests to confirm the diagnosis of secondary liver cancer. The tests also help determine the prognosis of the disease.

• Extreme Drug Resistance (EDR): This test helps the physician to find out whether the solid tumor will be resistant to a particular chemotherapy drug. It is considered as an important prognostic factor, since it helps determine the correct drugs for chemotherapy.
• MRI Scan: Images of the entire body can be obtained with the help of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan. The images help find out the origin of the primary cancer. MRI scan plays an important role in cancer treatment, because it is necessary to destroy the primary cancer along with the secondary cancer. This ensures that liver won't be attacked by the primary cancer again.
• Gamma PET Scan: This is another important prognostic tool for secondary liver cancer, which involves use of simple sugar and diagnostic radiation. One of the characteristic property of cancer cells is that they exhibit a faster metabolism for sugar than normal cells. Gamma PET scan scans the whole body and thus detects the areas which show rapid metabolism for sugar. The test results help determine correct cancer treatment.

Treatment
Secondary liver cancer prognosis helps decide the treatment. The treatment may vary according to the age, sex, stage (how far the cancer has spread), and the physical and mental health of the patient. The treatment options include surgery to remove cancer tumors, chemotherapy and radiation therapy to kill and control the growth of cancer cells, use of hormones to prevent the abnormal growth of cells, and monoclonal antibody treatment. Scientists are still researching to find out the effectiveness of other treatments like radio frequency ablation, cryosurgery, laser ablation, alcohol treatment, etc. and so these are not used commonly.

Life Expectancy
Secondary liver cancer is a life-threatening liver disease. Most of the patients diagnosed with secondary liver cancer die within 6 months to one year of diagnosis. Life expectancy beyond one year is noticed in case of very few patients. However, if the cancer is diagnosed early when the tumor is small and when there is no vascular invasion then surgeries or other cancer treatments can help increase metastatic liver cancer life expectancy. Patient's mental and physical health also play an important role in increasing the life expectancy.

It should be borne in mind that every cancer case is unique and you cannot foretell the life span of a cancer patient, with the help of the prognosis or available data and statistics. It is obvious that metastatic liver cancer prognosis will be very poor. Besides prompt medication and proper treatment, patients diagnosed with secondary liver cancer need family support to fight the situation.