The prognosis for liver cancer — details about important
The prognosis for liver cancer is one of the most unfavorable. The average five-year survival of patients is 10%, even at the beginning of treatment in the first stage of the disease five-year survival is about 40%.
How long live with liver cancer depends on many conditions. Stage of disease, histological type of the tumor, comorbidities, the patient received treatment for each of these conditions depends on the duration of life of a particular person. At diagnosis at last, fourth stage liver cancer the patient may live two to three months, six months, maybe five years (although such cases only 6%). Many doctors among the conditions of success of treatment noted positive attitude of the patient.
Why the prognosis is not so favorable as in other types of cancers? The main reason that liver cancer most cases are secondary, that is, when the cancer is detected liver lesion, it's often already metastasized. This means that the underlying disease has gone too far. Liver metastases give 75-80% of cases of cancer of other organs.
Another reason for the low survival of late detection of the disease. This is because liver cancer has no specific symptoms, and treat the patient completely from the disease. Either he does not receive treatment, because in many cases there is a generally asymptomatic, and clinical signs of liver damage are felt only when the tumor becomes a substantial size. Given the high cost of treatment, it is clear that not every patient has the ability to pay it. To wait for quota free treatment, it takes time, and its something most patients with liver cancer not.
What is liver cancer?
Thus, the beginning of the disease occurs without a pronounced clinical picture. Further, with the development of the tumor, the symptoms appear, which can be divided into two groups: General characteristic of liver cancer.
Common symptoms:
- Weakness, fatigue,
- Low-grade fever,
- Lack of appetite,
- Weight loss,
- Anemia.
The symptoms of liver cancer:
- Enlarged liver (hepatomegaly),
- Discomfort or pain in the right hypochondrium,
- Indigestion,
- Jaundice,
- Ascites,
- Bleeding.
Progressive weakness, loss of appetite are the major symptoms in the early stages of liver cancer. Gradually, the symptoms increase. Increasing the liver it begins to felt on palpation. Its size can increase quite quickly. Often the lower edge of the liver palpable at the umbilicus, or even lower. Also on palpation there is moderate pain. The liver becomes dense, hilly, can be determined an isolated tumor site.
Due to compression by a tumor of the main bile duct develop jaundice, gradually growing signs of liver failure, manifested in the General intoxication of the organism. The tumor cells may begin to synthesize hormone-like substances, for this reason, appear endocrine disorders. Liver damage causes a disruption of fluid exchange in the body, which causes fluid accumulation in the abdomen (ascites). The development of ascites may cause blockade of the venous outflow from the abdominal cavity due to pressure of the tumor on the major blood vessels.
Treatment of liver cancer
Among all methods of cancer treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery) for cancer of the liver in most cases used surgical treatment. Malignant neoplasms of the liver is almost insensitive to other ways of treatment, so they apply in rare cases.
The procedure removes directlya tumor or liver resection with removal of part or whole share. Possible and liver transplantation. In recent years quite successful are the operations performed on special equipment CyberKnife. New technologies operations have a greater percentage of a positive outcome.
If treated liver cancer?
Of course, we should not lose hope for a cure, moreover, that such cases occur, despite the overall poor prognosis for cancer of the liver. The big problem is that after surgery for cancer the majority of patients will develop tumor recurrence or metastases appear in other organs.
Prevention of liver cancer
Given that cancer tumors do not develop "from scratch", we should say that the attention to their health never hurt anyone. Early treatment of any disease, proper lifestyle is the best prevention of liver cancer. In most cases, malignant tumor of the liver develops on the background of hepatitis C, B or D, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver. These diseases are much easier to treat than cancer.