How Much Does Liver Cancer Treatment Cost?

Treatment Options for Liver Cancer

The severity (stage) of the ailment, your age, general health, and personal preferences all affect the liver cancer treatment options.

The treatment plan for a liver cancer patient is designed on the basis of the following factors:

• Extent of damage to the liver
• Size, location, and number of tumors in the liver
• Whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body
• Overall health status and age of the patient

The types of therapies utilized to treat liver cancer are as follows:

Surgery

Surgery is usually the treatment of choice when liver cancer is discovered early and only affects a small portion of the liver while the rest of the liver is still healthy. It entails the removal of the liver tumor.

• Surgery to remove the tumor: In some circumstances, the doctor may recommend a procedure to remove the liver cancer and a small amount of the surrounding healthy liver tissue if the tumor is small and its functioning is excellent.
• Partial hepatectomy: this is a surgery that can be used to accomplish this. In order to prevent the cancer from progressing and spreading, the surgeon must remove a portion of the liver during this procedure. When the tumor is modest and only a small portion of the organ is damaged, it is typically an option.
• After a hepatectomy, the surgeon must leave enough healthy tissue for the liver to function normally in patients who have cirrhosis-related liver cancer or who have scar tissue in the liver.
• Additionally, if the cancer has already progressed to other sections of the liver or other body organs, the operation may not be the best course of action. Such patients may experience severe bleeding, blood clotting, infections, and pneumonia after liver surgery.

Liver transplant surgery

• Another surgical option for liver cancer patients is a liver cancer transplant.
• Patients with cancer that has not spread to other parts can have an option of a liver transplant.
• Having a liver transplant is only a possibility for a small percentage of people with early-stage liver cancer.
• In this surgery, the diseased liver of the patient is replaced with a healthy liver from a donor.

Two types of liver transplants depending on the donor are:

1. Living donor transplant
2. Deceased (cadaver) donor liver transplant.

• For a living donor liver transplant, a portion of a healthy liver from a matched living donor is used to replace the damaged liver of the patient.
• The doctor will perform certain tests for both the donor and recipient to determine a compatibility match.
• In the case of a deceased donor liver transplant, the entire liver from a cadaver (a person who has recently died and has healthy organs) is taken and put into the patient.

Other treatment options for cancer that have not spread outside the liver and if surgery and transplant are not possible include:

• Radiofrequency ablation: This method involves the use of a special probe to destroy cancer cells with heat.
• Cryosurgery: In this treatment, a metal probe is used to freeze and destroy cancer cells. The doctor places an instrument, called a cryoprobe, guided by the ultrasound images, directly onto liver tumors.
• Chemoembolization: In this procedure, the anticancer drugs are directly injected into the tumors in the liver.
• Radiation beads: This method involves the use of beads filled with radiation. These tiny spheres are placed in the liver to directly deliver radiation to the tumor.

Targeted Therapy

• Targeted drug therapies focus on particular defects frequently found in cancer cells. Pharmacological treatment that targets these abnormalities can kill cancer cells.
• The cancer cells may be analyzed in a lab to determine whether these drugs might be helpful.

Immunotherapy

• In order to fight cancer, immunotherapy makes use of the immune system.
• The immune system may not successfully treat cancer of the body because cancer cells produce substances that make immune system cells blind.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy uses chemicals to kill rapidly proliferating cells, especially cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be given orally, intravenously, or both ways through a vein in your arm.
• Advanced liver cancer is occasionally treated with chemotherapy.

Supportive Care

• Palliative care is a sort of specialized medical care that focuses on treating severe illness symptoms including pain.