Surgery is the only way to cure primary liver cancer, so the goal of the diagnostic work-up is to discover if all the cancerous tissue can be removed. This is usually not possible, either because the tumor has already spread beyond the liver or because the liver is too damaged and removal of liver tissue would leave a person without enough liver function to survive.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are occasionally helpful in relieving symptoms. Primary liver cancer may progress rapidly, but these and other measures may be taken to maintain the quality of life.
Surgery Surgery can cure liver cancer if the entire tumor can be removed. The liver has two distinct
lobes—right and left—and a tumor confined to one lobe can often be removed even if the patient has cirrhosis of the liver. If cirrhosis is only minimally or not at all present, a tumor involving parts of both lobes of the liver can be removed with an extensive operation (trisegmentectomy). This surgery is potentially dangerous, however, and people with poor liver function may not survive it.
The presence of tumor anywhere else in the body—lung, bone or lymph nodes , for example—means that removal of the liver tumor alone will not bring about a cure. If the disease has already metastasized, removing part of a liver tumor is not considered beneficial because of the side effects of surgery, including a long recuperative period.
