Liver cancer occurs mainly in older people. In Switzerland, around 950 people are diagnosed with the disease every year. Men are affected almost three times as often as women. The incidence rate increases with age and is highest around the age of 80.

Leberkrebs ist eine Tumorerkrankung der Zellen in der Leber.

What is liver cancer?

Liver cancer is a type of cancer that originates in the liver. It can develop when originally healthy cells in the liver begin to grow uncontrollably, divide and grow into surrounding tissue. These rapidly multiplying cells can form a tumor. This form is also known as “primary” liver cancer.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of primary liver cancer.

The term “secondary” liver cancer is used when cancer cells from a tumor in another part of the body reach the liver via the bloodstream or lymphatic system and form metastases there. Secondary liver cancer is treated differently to primary liver tumors.

Types of liver cancer

There are different types of primary liver cancer:

  • Hepatocellular carcinoma: is the most common form of liver cancer. It develops from a group of cells in the liver known as hepatocytes.
  • Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct carcinoma): This type of liver cancer develops from the cells lining the small bile ducts in the liver. Around 10 to 20 % of all liver cancers are cholangiocarcinomas.

There are other rarer types of liver cancer such as angiosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma, which start in the cells lining the blood vessels of the liver, and hepatoblastoma, which mainly occurs in young children.

Symptoms

In many cases, liver cancer only causes symptoms at an advanced stage.

The most common symptoms include

  • Loss of appetite
  • Pain in the upper abdomen
  • Strong feeling of satiety after small meals
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Palpable swelling under the right costal arch
  • Weight loss without a recognizable cause
  • Swelling or accumulation of fluid in the abdomen
  • Itching
  • Yellowing of the skin and eyes

Important: These symptoms can also be caused by other diseases and do not necessarily have to be a sign of liver cancer. However, it is advisable to have them checked by a doctor.

Causes and risk factors

What exactly causes healthy liver cells to become cancer cells has not yet been fully researched. However, it is known that several factors can increase the risk of liver cancer.

The risk factors include:

  • Excessive alcohol consumption
  • Chronic infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C viruses
  • Liver cirrhosis
  • Obesity (morbid overweight)
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver hepatitis
  • Smoking
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Inherited metabolic diseases
  • Aflatoxins: Toxins from molds that can grow on cereals and nuts
  • Certain industrial chemicals such as vinyl chloride and thorium dioxide
  • Taking anabolic steroids
  • Genetic factors

Treatment options

There are various ways to treat liver cancer.

These include:

  • Surgery: Surgical options include “partial hepatectomy”, in which the part of the liver with the tumor tissue is removed, and liver transplantation.
  • Ablation: In ablation, smaller tumors can be destroyed in different ways without removing them surgically: with extreme cold, with high-energy radiation or by injecting ethanol (alcohol) directly into the tumor.
  • Embolization: In this form of therapy, substances are injected directly into a hepatic artery to block or reduce the blood flow to a liver tumour.
  • Radiotherapy: In this form of therapy, high-energy radiation is used to destroy the cancer cells or slow down their growth.
  • Targeted therapies: These specifically developed drugs can block or slow down certain mechanisms and pathways that are responsible for the growth, division and spread of cancer cells.
  • Immunotherapies: These biotechnologically produced drugs can activate or strengthen the body’s own immune system in order to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively.
  • Chemotherapies: Chemotherapy uses drugs that circulate in the bloodstream and can reach and kill rapidly growing cells, including cancer cells, throughout the body.

Which of these therapies is used depends on various factors, primarily the state of health, but also the size, location, characteristics and spread of the tumor. It is also possible for therapies to be used in combination or in succession.

CH-ONC-24-00013, 04/2024

Other treatment areas

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Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women. There are many different types of breast cancer. Men can also be affected.

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Uterine cancer is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs. It mainly occurs in women after the menopause.

Kidney Cancer

Kidney cancer, also known as renal cell carcinoma, is a cancer of the kidney. Older people around the age of 75 are affected more frequently.

Thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is a rare type of cancer that occurs more frequently in women than in men. It can also affect young people.

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