In the United States, cancer affecting the liver is often times metastatic cancer which occurs when tumors from other parts of the body spread (metastasize) to the liver.
Cancers that commonly spread to the liver include colon, lung, and breast cancers. These kinds of cancers are treated based on where the cancer began, rather than being treated as primary liver cancers.
Primary liver cancer is rarely discovered early and many times doesn't respond to current treatments. Though treatments fail to provide great improvement in the liver cancer itself, pain and other signs and symptoms caused by liver cancer can be aggressively treated to improve quality of life.
If a patient exhibits liver cancer symptoms, as their physician, you will perform several screening tests and may order additional imaging tests and procedures to better evaluate diagnoses or treatment options. Interventional Radiologists are on staff to provide groundbreaking treatment options for individuals with liver cancer.
Procedures
Ultrasound
An Ultrasound may be ordered to produce a picture of internal organs, including the liver. During the test, sound waves are reflected from the liver and transformed into a computer image. Ultrasound provides information about the shape, texture and makeup of tumors.
CT
A Computerized Tomography (CT) scan uses X-ray to produce a detailed series of thin cross-sectional images of a body. As the patient's physician, you may also order a variation of the test, called a CT angiogram, where contrast dye is injected into a vein in the arm. CT uses X-ray technology to track the dye as it flows through the blood vessels in the liver. A CT angiogram can provide detailed information on the number and location of liver tumors.
MRI
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) creates images using a magnetic field and radio waves. The test can show images of the ducts that transport bile from the liver to the upper part of the small intestine (duodenum) as well as of the arteries and veins within the liver.
Interventional Radiology
Inland Imaging Interventional Radiologists provide amazing new medical technologies to treat liver cancer such as Yttrium-90 microsphere administration, where microscopic radioactive beads are injected to specially target cancer within the liver.
Other interventional procedures include radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation. In either procedure, several needle probes are inserted directly through the skin into a tumor, using a series of real-time computed tomography (CT) images to guide the probe. Magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound sometimes are used instead of CT scans to view the procedure.
Once the probe is positioned in the center of the tumor, the radiologist applies electrical heat in the form of radio waves to “vaporize” the tumor or applies cold energy to kill the abnormal tissue.