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Testing for liver cancer is broken down into 3 main
categories: imagining tests, other procedures, and lab tests. Imagining tests use x-rays, magnetic fields,
or sound waves to develop a picture from the inside of the body, and these
tests are completed for a number of reasons.
These reasons include finding areas impacted by cancer, diagnosing
cancer, determining if the cancer has spread, guiding treatments, and
determining the effectiveness of treatment.
Some different kinds of imagining tests include ultrasound, Computed
tomography (CT), and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) just to name a few.
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Although other procedures are rather broad, these are a
couple different procedures that might be used to help diagnose liver cancer. The two procedures that fall into this
category are laparoscopy and biopsy.
During a laparoscopy, the doctor inserts a small tubed camera into the
abdomen to look at the liver. A biopsy
means the doctor will remove a sample of tissue from the liver (or whatever
area is being looked at) to see if the tissue is cancerous. There are a few different ways a biopsy can
be completed: needle, laparoscopic, and surgical.
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Lastly, doctors may choose to do a variety of lab
tests. Some of these tests may include alpha-fetoprotein
blood (AFP) tests, liver function tests (LFTs), complete blood count (CBC) are
just a few of these tests. Just like
the imagining tests, there are a few reasons these tests may be completed. Lab tests may be done to help diagnose liver
cancer, determine possible causes, determine the function of the liver, and
determine the effectiveness of the treatment.
Stages of Liver Cancer
Once a patient has been diagnosed with liver cancer, the
next step is to determine the stage of the cancer. Liver cancer is broke up into 4 different
numbered stages.
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Stage I of liver cancer is when there is only
one tumor found and it has not reached the point of spreading to nearby blood
vessels.
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Liver cancer reaches stage II when either one
tumor has spread to blood vessels nearby, or more than one tumor is present but
has not grown bigger than 5 centimeters.
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Stage III is slightly different than the other
stages; this is because stage III is split into three different categories:
Stage IIIA, Stage IIIB, and Stage IIIC.
o Patients
are diagnosed at stage IIIA if they have more than one tumor that is larger
than 5 centimeters or a tumor moves to a major branch of blood vessels around
the liver.
o Stage
IIIB is when one or more tumors, regardless of the size, spreads to a nearby organ,
other than the gallbladder, or they have broken through lining of the
peritoneal cavity.
o Stage
IIIC is when a patient’s cancer has spread to the nearby lymph nodes.
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Stage IV of liver cancer is when the patient’s
liver cancer has spread to other places within the body, like bones or
lungs. At this stage, tumors can reach
any size and spread to blood vessels or lymph nodes nearby.
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For adults who have been diagnosed with primary liver
cancer, sometimes their stages may also be grouped by how their form of cancer
may be treated.
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Localized resectable: This means the cancer is
only found in the liver, has not spread to any other location, and it can be
removed entirely by surgery.
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Localized and locally advanced unresectable: This
means the cancer remains strictly in the liver without having spread, but it
cannot be removed fully by surgery.
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Advanced: At this point, the cancer has spread
to different areas of the liver or has moved to other parts of the body, like
bones or the lungs.
