Secondary liver cancer
The treatment you have depends on where your cancer started and how you are feeling. Your specialist will discuss the aims of treatment with you.
For some types of cancer that have spread to the liver, it may still be possible to cure your cancer. For other types of cancer, the aim may be to control your cancer and symptoms. This is called palliative treatment.
Deciding about treatment can be difficult. You need to understand:
what treatment can do for you
any side effects of the treatment
how many visits to hospital the treatment involves
You can stop whenever you want if you find it too much to cope with.
Talk through your options with your doctor or specialist nurse. You may find it helpful to talk things over with a close relative or friend or a counsellor if one is available.
Your treatment will depend on a number of factors including:
your type of primary cancer
the treatment you have already had
how many bones are affected by cancer
whether your cancer has spread to other parts of the body
your general health
your symptoms
Surgery is not suitable for everyone and depends on:
where your cancer started, it is a common treatment for bowel cancer that has spread
whether you only have secondary cancer in the liver – if your cancer has spread to another part of the body, surgery is not usually suitable
how many secondary tumours you have in the liver and how big they are
whether your primary cancer is under control
Removing part of the liver (liver resection) is major surgery and can take several hours. You have the surgery at a specialist centre. After your operation, you usually stay in intensive care or a high dependency unit. This is for at least 24 hours. Most people need to be in hospital for about 10 to 21 days. It usually takes about 6 weeks to start to feel back to normal.
You might have chemotherapy or a targeted cancer drug before or after your operation.
Before surgery, it is sometimes possible to encourage the healthy part of the liver to grow. This helps to make sure there is enough liver left afterwards and can reduce the risk of liver failure. They do this by blocking a branch of the main vein leading to the liver (the portal vein). This is called portal vein embolisation (PVE). This usually happens several weeks before the liver resection.
Sometimes they remove the liver in two stages. First, you have an operation to remove part of the liver, then a week or so later you have another part removed. This is called a staged liver resection.
Chemotherapy uses anti cancer drugs to kill cancer cells. The type of chemotherapy you have depends on the type of primary cancer.
If the first type of chemotherapy you have (1st line treatment) doesn't control your cancer, you might be able to have a different type of chemotherapy (2nd line treatment).
Find out more in the chemotherapy section for your cancer type
This treatment gives chemotherapy directly into the artery going into the liver (hepatic artery). It's known as hepatic artery infusion (HAI). You have a small tube (catheter) put into the main artery leading to the liver.
HAI allows a high concentration of the chemotherapy drug to get to the tumour. You usually have to stay in hospital overnight or longer for this treatment.
This treatment is not suitable for everyone with secondary liver cancer.
Chemoembolisation involves giving a chemotherapy drug into an artery. It is given along with a substance called an embolic agent to block the artery. The doctor puts a thin tube called a catheter into a large artery in the leg or arm.
They thread the catheter into the main artery that carries blood to the liver. They then inject the chemotherapy first and thereafter, the embolic agent through the catheter. The embolic agent cuts off most of the blood flow to the liver, which cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cancer. This damages the cancer cells.
The chemotherapy mixture also stays in the area of the cancer for some time, so the cancer cells get a high dose of the treatment. You may need to stay in hospital overnight or longer for this treatment.
Some cancers including breast and prostate cancer depend on hormones to survive and grow. So lowering hormone levels in the body can help to control them. You might have the hormone treatment as a tablet or injection.
Hormone therapy for advanced breast cancer
Targeted cancer drugs are treatments that target the differences that help a cancer cell to survive and grow.
Your doctor may suggest a targeted cancer treatment if it is suitable for your primary cancer.
Go to your cancer type to find out more about targeted cancer drugs
Radiotherapy treatment uses high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells. Radiotherapy can help to control cancer growth and symptoms. You usually have this as external radiotherapy. This is where the therapy radiographer uses a machine outside the body to direct radiation beams at the cancer to destroy it.
For secondary liver cancer, you might have external radiotherapy as:
conventional radiotherapy
stereotactic radiotherapy
Stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) gives radiotherapy from many different angles around the body. The beams meet at the tumour. This means the tumour receives a high dose of radiation, and the tissues around it receive a much lower dose. This lowers the risk of side effects.
Read more about stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT)
Livers are very sensitive to radiotherapy so it is not a common treatment for liver cancer. But you may have radiotherapy to help control pain.
This is a type of internal radiotherapy (brachytherapy). It is also called radioembolisation.
You have a thin tube called a catheter put into the hepatic artery that supplies blood to the liver. The doctor sends tiny beads called microspheres down the catheter. These get stuck in the small blood vessels around the cancer.
The microspheres contain a radioactive substance that gives a dose of radiation to the cancer. The radiation from the microspheres damages the tumour's blood supply. This means that the cancer can’t get the nutrients it needs. The radiation also damages the cancer cells.
The range of radiation from the beads is very small. So it causes very little damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. Most of the radiation from the microspheres is gone within 2 weeks. The microspheres stay in the liver permanently but are harmless.
Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT)
Your doctor may suggest another treatment if you can’t or have already had the standard treatments. These treatments include:
radiofrequency ablation – using radio waves to destroy cancer cells
radiofrequency assisted surgery – using radio waves during an operation to kill the cancer cells and then remove them
cryotherapy – freezing the cancer cells
microwave ablation – using microwaves to destroy the cancer
laser therapy – using a laser to destroy the cancer cells
alcohol injection – injecting alcohol into the cancer to destroy the cells
Secondary liver cancer can cause symptoms. All the treatments above can help to control these symptoms by shrinking or removing the liver tumours. But if the symptoms are still troublesome, there are other ways of controlling them.
The symptoms below are the most common ones that people have with secondary liver cancer. Not everyone has them and they may be mild.
Research is going on all the time into improving treatments for secondary liver cancer and helping people to cope with symptoms.
Current research is looking at bowel cancer that has spread to the liver. The research includes:
taking a fish oil supplement before and after surgery to prevent stop the cancer from coming back
looking at ways to increase the amount of drugs that go into the cancer in the liver
Last reviewed: 26 Jul 2023
Next review due: 26 Jul 2026
Secondary liver cancer is when a cancer that started somewhere else in the body has spread to the liver.
Coping with secondary cancer can be very difficult. Getting the help and support you and your family need can help.
Search for the cancer type you want to find out about. Each section has detailed information about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, research and coping with cancer.
When someone is dying with cancer, they and their carers can get help and support. This information might help at a very emotional and difficult time.
A primary cancer is where a cancer starts. Sometimes cancer cells can break away from the primary cancer and settle and grow in another part of the body. This new cancer growth is called secondary cancer.
Secondary liver cancer is when a cancer that started somewhere else in the body has spread to the liver. It is also called liver metastases.
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