Liver cancer: Surveillance & Treatments
Liver cancer surveillance in chronic hepatitis B Hepatitis C, hepatitis B, alcoholic liver disease and primary biliary cirrhosis are the risk factors for liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver cirrhosis is progressing in 5 to 30% of the patients who have progressed to liver cancer for 5 years. Therefore, people with high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma like this one need surveillance. The method is liver ultrasound and AFP. Liver ultrasound has 60% sensitivity and 90% specificity. AFP of 20 ng / ml or more is suspicious for liver cancer, but the sensitivity is about 20 to 60%. The interval between surveillance is 6 to 12 months. Treatment There are three ways to cure primary liver cancer. First, partial hepatectomy is the best treatment or only 10 to 30% of patients are operable. Most of the contraindication is cirrhosis. This method proceeds after judging whether the residual liver function is appropriate. In Korea, Child Pugh B is also considered. It is usually done when the ca...