| |
Symptoms That Require a Doctor's Attention: |
| |
Right-sided abdominal discomfort
Pain around right shoulder blade
Unexplained weight loss
Extreme fatigue
Yellow tint to skin and eyes
Feeling very full even after a small meal
|
|
|
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer drugs to eliminate cancer cells from the body. This is a "systemic" form of cancer therapy, because medication is delivered either intravenously or taken by mouth as a pill or capsule. It is useful in targeting cancers that have metastasized (spread) to other organs. Chemotherapy is used in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with modest results. Some research has shown that chemotherapy failure is caused by, in part, cancer cells developing multi-drug resistance. There has been a good response rate using a technique called chemoembolization.
In this procedure, cancer treatment is delivered directly to the liver tumor with a minimum of toxicity to the rest of the body. The hepatic artery, which supplies blood to the liver, is blocked and chemotherapy drugs are injected directly into the liver. Response rates have been as high as 60 percent to 80 percent. However, chemoembolization is not known to have improved overall survival in cases of HCC.
More on Liver Cancer What Is Chemotherapy?
In the Encyclopedia:
Budd-Chiari syndrome
Liver cancer
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
|
|
|
