Treatments
Detection Procedure
Symptoms
The following symptoms may be caused by swelling of the liver. These and other
symptoms may be caused by adult primary liver cancer or by other conditions.
A doctor should be consulted if any of the following problems occur:
- A hard lump on the right side just below the rib
cage
- Discomfort in the upper abdomen on the right side
- Pain around the right shoulder blade
- Unexplained weight loss
- Jaundice (yellowing
of the skin and whites of the eyes)
- Unusual tiredness
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
Methods of Diagnosis
When your primary care physician finds a reason to suspect cancer
in the liver, you will be advised to undergo a series of diagnostic tests.
Some of these tests are noninvasive and require a brief visit to a clinic or
lab. Others are more involved and may require an overnight stay in a hospital.
An
exam of the body to check general signs of health, including checking for
signs of disease, such as lumps or anything else that seems unusual. A history
of the patient's health habits and past illnesses and treatments will also
be taken.
Physicians use several types of tests to detect liver cancer. Biopsy is the
only certain way to confirm that a tumor is cancerous (malignant). Biopsy
means that a small piece of tissue is removed from the liver and analyzed in
a lab. CAT scan (computer-aided tomography, also called "CT scan"), uses multiple,
rapid X-ray images of the liver to provide highly accurate diagnostic information.
With CAT scans, physicians now can detect tumors as small as 1-2 cm (approximately
1 inch) with high reliability. A third method is ultrasound, an imaging test
that shows organ structures. Alpha-feto protein blood test. This test is
effective in only 70 percent of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
