What is Liver Cancer?

Liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma, is a disease in which malignant cells grow in the tissue of the liver, one of the largest organs in the body.

The liver is an essential organ that people cannot live without. It processes and stores many of the nutrients absorbed from the intestine, causes the secretion of bile that helps in the digestion of food, and produces some of the clotting factors that keep a person from bleeding too much when cut or injured. The liver gets most of its supply of blood from the hepatic portal vein, which carries nutrient-rich blood from the intestines; the rest comes from the hepatic artery, which supplies the liver with blood that is rich in oxygen.

Because the liver is made up of several different types of cells, several types of tumors can form in the liver; some are cancerous and some are benign.

Roughly 75 percent of primary liver cancers begin in hepatocytes (liver cells). Hepatocellular carcinoma most commonly occurs in people whose livers have been damaged. This damage is usually caused by alcohol abuse, by chronic infection with the hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus, or cirrhosis, from food contaminants or from metabolic diseases.

The American Cancer Society estimates 19,160 new cases of primary liver cancer and bile duct cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2007. Twice as many men will be diagnosed as women.

Our Services

People with liver cancer are treated through the Liver Tumor Clinic at University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC). Patients benefit from leading edge treatments and improved outcomes of therapy, created from decades of research.

For a virtual tour of the SCCA clinic, click here.

For more information about the Liver Tumor Clinic, please call the Patient Care Coordinator, Jan Thomas, at (206) 598-0539.

January 2007