Symptoms, Causes, & Risk Factors

As I discussed in my last post, Liver Cancer has a variety of different types, both primary and secondary.  Additionally, I spent some time defining what exactly cancer itself is before going too in depth about what liver cancer was.  Before you can do too much research about the other areas of liver cancer, it is extremely important that you understand what it is.  I highly suggest that if you need a refresher that you refer back to my last blog post in order to make sure you benefit from this next post as much as possible!  J

Now that we have a strong understanding of what exactly liver cancer is, we can start looking to answer another question about it.  What are the causes of liver cancer?  What are some of the symptoms of liver cancer?  If these are questions you are currently asking yourself about liver cancer, you should be able to answer these questions soon!

Liver that has suffered from Liver Cancer.
livercancersymptoms.org

What are some symptoms?

Unfortunately, most people don’t show signs of liver cancer when it’s in the early stages of development.  More times than not, symptoms of the common forms of primary liver cancer show before the more rare types.  As symptoms begin to appear patients may notice some of the following signs:

·        Weight loss, without trying

·        Loss of appetite

·        Upper abdominal pain

·        Nausea and vomiting

·        General weakness and fatigue

·        Abdominal swelling

·        Skin turning yellow, as well as whites of the eyes (jaundice)

·        White, chalky stools

Comparison of skin color for someone w/ and w/o jaundice.
www.puristat.com

As with any other type of sickness, or cancer, it is extremely important for patients to make an appointment with their doctor once these symptoms begin to appear.

What about causes?

At this point in time, researchers don’t have a clear answer for what exactly causes liver cancer.  However, they do have an idea of the cause in some cases.  One cause appears to be found when a patient has a hepatitis virus present within their body.  When this disease is present, infections tend to be long lasting, which in turn result in the development of liver cancer.  Just as I pointed out in my last post, liver cancer becomes present when the DNA within liver cells begins to form mutations.  Once this happens, the cells hold a strong possibility for growing out of control and developing a tumor.

Comparison between Liver Tissue.
13leesub.wordpress.com

Although researchers haven’t decided upon a clear cause for liver cancer, they have been able to uncover what appear to be some possible causes in patients who have been affected by liver cancer in the past.  Typically primary liver cancer develops when the liver has suffered some kind of damage.  This damage can happen through birth defects, alcohol abuse, and infections from diseases, such as Hepatitis as I discussed above.

Normal Liver vs. a Liver with Cirrhosis
depts.washington.edu

Risk Factors...?

Now that we have a better idea of the symptoms and causes of liver cancer, it’s important to also consider the risk factors that could put any one at risk for developing liver cancer.  A risk factor, according to the American Cancer Society, is anything that affects a person’s chance of getting a disease, such as cancer.  It is extremely important to keep in mind that just because a person meets some of these risk factors does not automatically mean they are at risk of developing liver cancer.  What these risk factors represent is what researchers have found to develop into liver cancer at some point in time with other patients.  Additionally, some patients who discover they have liver cancer sometimes do not meet any of the risk factors listed.  This shows just exactly how difficult and confusing liver cancer really is.

Some risk factors believed to lead to cancer include:

o   Gender: typically the most common form of liver cancer develops in men

o   Race: in the U.S. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have the highest rate of liver cancer development

o   Cirrhosis: disease where liver cells become damaged and are replaced by scar tissue

o   Chronic Viral Hepatitis, as I discussed above

o   Heavy alcohol use

o   Obesity

o   Type 2 Diabetes: patients with this risk factor typically fall under another risk factor as well

o   Inherited Metabolic Diseases: can lead to cirrhosis

o   Anabolic Steroids

Process of damaged liver due to alcohol consumption.
healthylivingguy.com

Although these are not the only risk factors for liver cancer, these tend to be some of the most popular risk factors among patients.

As we continue to look further into Liver Cancer, we will continue to take this information and use it towards new information in the near future!



Resources:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/liver-cancer/basics/risk-factors/con-20025222
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/livercancer/detailedguide/liver-cancer-risk-factors
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/liver-cancer-hepatocellular-carcinoma-hcc-directory

What is Liver Cancer?

Before we can take a deeper look into what Liver Cancer is specifically, it is important that we have a good idea of what exactly cancer itself is. 

As we learn through most of our science courses, normal and healthy cells within our body grow, divide, and die on their own, in this order.  When we are young, our cells go through this process much more quickly in order to help us grow.  As we get older, cells divide as needed to replace cells that are dying.  However, when this process becomes out of control, cancer begins.  Unlike normal cells that eventually die, cancer cells don’t die on their own; this means they continue to divide and create new cancer cells.  Because these begin to get out of control, these cells start invading in other areas of the body, or tissues.  Once they invade other tissues within the body, they begin to grow and divide within that area as well.  This is the biggest difference between cancer cells and normal cells.

www.cancer.gov

One important thing to remember with cancer is that there are many different kinds of cancer.  Although the effects of each are different, they all start due to an abnormal growth of cancer cells.  When looking at what type of cancer a person has, we look at where the cancer itself originated within the body.  This means that the diagnostic type of cancer a patient has is where the cancer cells were found first in the body.  Even after the cells move to another part of the body and begin to divide in a new location, the cancer maintains the original location it started.  For example, if cancer cells first appear in a patient’s liver, and then spread to the prostate, the cancer is still considered to be liver cancer.

So… What is liver cancer?

In order to help us better understand liver cancer, it is important that we look into what exactly is the function of a normal liver.  Our liver is an extremely important organ within our body.  In fact, there’s really no way for us to live without our liver.  In fact, our liver has four extremely important jobs: breaking down and storing nutrients that our come from our intestines, it helps clot our blood when we cut or injury ourselves, makes bile to absorb the nutrients from our intestines, and it filters the waste and toxins within our blood that is later removed.

www.bath.ac.uk

Liver cancer is actually broken down into two different categories: primary and secondary.  The difference between these two is where the cancer originates.  Primary liver cancer is cancer that starts in the liver.  Something many people don’t really know is that liver cancer actually has more than one type of cancer.  The most common form of liver cancer is Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).  This form happens to be the most common form of liver cancer found in adults; 4 out of 5 cases of liver cancer are diagnosed as HCC.  Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma) is another type of primary liver cancer; however, this form only shows up in about 1 or 2 out of 10 patients diagnosed with liver cancer.

Just like many other forms of cancer, liver cancer also has two rare forms that are considered primary: Angiosarcomas and hemangiosarcomas.  Unlike the other two that begin in cells or bile duct, these forms begin in the cells that line the blood vessels of the liver.  Unfortunately with patients who become diagnosed with this form, it is nearly impossible to remove the tumor, that grows quickly, because it has already become widespread.  Although treatment for the other two primary types of liver cancer provides a chance for patients to rid of the cancer, Angiosarcomas and hemangiosarcomas are different.  Due to the widespread, treatment only provides patients with an opportunity to slow down the disease, but these two types of cancer almost always “win the fight” against the patient.

One last primary type of liver cancer is Hepatoblastoma, which is a rare form of cancer that typically is found in children under that age of 4.  Two-Thirds of the children who develop this type of cancer have good outcomes from surgery and chemotherapy because the cancer has not spread yet.

Secondary liver cancers are cancers that originated in another part of the body and have spread to the liver.  According to the American Cancer Society, secondary types of liver cancer are much more common than primary liver cancers.  In fact, most of the common types of cancer, like breast cancer and colon cancer, spread to the liver.  What makes secondary liver cancer different from primary liver cancer is that the secondary liver cancer cells act and look like the cancer cells of the originating place within the body; in other words, the secondary cells don’t look like primary liver cancer cells and are treated with the treatment from the primary location.

We will use this information as we continue to take a deeper looks into the bits and pieces of liver cancer soon to come!

Resources used:

American Cancer Society. (2013). Liver Cancer. Retrieved from American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/003058-pdf.pdf

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2014). Liver Cancer. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/liver-cancer/basics/definition/con-20025222

National Liver Foundation. (2013, December 12). Liver Cancer. Retrieved from American Liver Foundation: http://www.liverfoundation.org/abouttheliver/info/livercancer/

Blog Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to create a place where both teachers and students of the fifth grade level, and higher, can get an inside look into a “disease” that continues to impact countless people around the world today.  This entire blog will be focused around one main thesis: Liver cancer continues to impact people in our society every single day; as research continues on this area, it is important that students receive the opportunity to learn some of the basics about cancer that will help them understand a strong disease.  Within this blog we will take a closer look into these basic, but important, components of liver cancer.  What is liver cancer?  What is some of the new research being presented on liver cancer?  What does liver cancer look like?  Questions such as these, as well as others, are the driving force behind my blog.  Because there has yet to be one specific cause of liver cancer, many people underestimate just how defective liver cancer can be.  Although there has not been a specific cause identified, the American Cancer Society has estimated 23,000 people will die of liver cancer this year alone.  This number continues to grow every year.  Due to a real world experience in which I have experienced liver cancer, I find it important for students and teachers to have an opportunity to be provided with information and resources pertaining to this concept.  Liver cancer continues to impact our society each and every day. 

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