Gastrointestinal (GI) Oncology

Patient and Family Education

Liver Cancer

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What is Primary Liver Cancer?

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Cancer of the liver is a disease in which cancerous cells grow in the tissues of the liver. There are several types of liver tumors, including some that are not cancerous. Primary liver cancer is cancer that has started in the liver. It is different from cancer that starts somewhere else in the body and spreads to the liver. The most common type of primary liver cancer, accounting for 84% of liver cancer cases, is called hepatocellular carcinoma.

The liver is one of the largest organs in the body. It weighs three pounds and fills the upper right side of the abdomen, under the right lung and rib cage. The liver plays a vital role in making food into energy and filtering and storing blood.

Among its many responsibilities are:

processing and metabolizing nutrients and drugs
producing bile
controlling the level of glucose in the blood
cleansing the blood
regulating blood clotting

Liver cancer is becoming more rare in Europe and the United States, with the American Cancer Society estimating only 21,370 new cases to be diagnosed in 2008. It is becoming far more common, however, in parts of Africa and east Asia, where risk factors for the disease are more widespread.

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This page was last updated on: September 23, 2009.

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