A very early cancer will have little or no symptoms because it is too small to cause any. As the cancer enlarges, it will begin to produce symptoms. Commonly these are pain in the right upper abdominal area from streching of the liver capsule, weight and appetite loss, breast swelling in males, blood clotting problems leading to intestinal bleeding and bruises on the skin and jaundice.
There are two main kinds of liver cancer. Heptoma and cholangiocarcinoma. Heptoma is cancer of the liver cells and is a primary liver cancer. Hepatoma usually grows in the liver as a ball-like tumor, invading the normal tissue surrounding it.
Cancer of the bile duct cells is called cholangiocarcinoma. Cholangiocarcinoma originates in the bile ducts and is often caused by infestation with the liver fluke Clonorchis (a parasite). The cancer grows along the bile ducts in sheets or lines and is hard to find on X-ray studies.
Most cases of liver cancer are actually cancers that started in another organ. This is called metastases. Because of its very high blood flow and many biological functions, the liver is one of the most common places for metastases to grow. Tumors that originally arise in the colon, pancreas, stomach, lung or breast can spread to the liver.
Liver cancer is much more prevalent in many of the developing countries than in the industrialized world. Its incidence is highest in subSaharan Africa, China, southern Asia, and Japan. Japan is the exception of the industrialized countries. China accounts for about 45% of the world’s cases.
Signs, symptoms & indicators of Liver Cancer
Not having a fever or having a slight/having a moderate/having a high fever
Liver Cancer can lead to
Recommendations for Liver Cancer
L-Carnitine
The study was published on March 21, 2009 in World Journal of Gastroenterology. A research group in King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia investigated, for the first time, the role of carnitine, a naturally occurring compound that is synthesized mainly in the liver, during the development of hepatocarcinogenesis. Authors of the study reported that carnitine deficiency is a risk factor and should be viewed as a mechanism in hepatic carcinogenesis, and that long-term L-carnitine supplementation prevents the development of liver cancer. Therefore, carnitine supplementation alone or in combination with other natural chemopreventive compounds could be used to prevent, slow or reverse the occurrence of liver cancer.
Urea
In 1954 a Greek physician, Dr. Evangelos D. Danopoulos, reported discovering that urine had anticancer properties. After years of research, he identified urea as the active anticancer agent in urine. Urea is the end product of protein metabolism and is the main substance excreted in the urine.
Dr. Danopoulos reported the results of oral administration of urea in the treatment of patients with liver cancer. In this study eighteen patients (eight with primary tumors and ten with metastatic liver tumors) were given 2 to 2.5gm of urea four to six times daily. Patients with more than 30 to 35% of their liver involved were not allowed to participate. With this treatment, the patients had an average survival of 26.5 months, five times greater than usually expected.
In a follow-up study, eleven patients with primary liver cancer and seventeen with metastasized liver cancer were treated with 10 to 15gm of urea daily. Again, excellent results (25.6 months of average survival) were obtained.
However, other researchers found that urea has no activity on secondary liver cancer associated with colon cancer (colon-liver metastasis).
Key
| Weak or unproven link |
| Proven definite or direct link |
| Likely to help |
| Highly recommended |
Glossary
Cancer
Refers to the various types of malignant neoplasms that contain cells growing out of control and invading adjacent tissues, which may metastasize to distant tissues.
Jaundice
Yellow discoloration of the skin, whites of the eyes and excreta as a result of an excess of the pigment bilirubin in the bloodstream.
Bile
A bitter, yellow-green secretion of the liver. Bile is stored in the gallbladder and is released when fat enters the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) in order to aid digestion.
Parasite
An organism living in or on another organism.
Colon
The part of the large intestine that extends to the rectum. The colon takes the contents of the small intestine, moving them to the rectum by contracting.
Stomach
A hollow, muscular, J-shaped pouch located in the upper part of the abdomen to the left of the midline. The upper end (fundus) is large and dome-shaped; the area just below the fundus is called the body of the stomach. The fundus and the body are often referred to as the cardiac portion of the stomach. The lower (pyloric) portion curves downward and to the right and includes the antrum and the pylorus. The function of the stomach is to begin digestion by physically breaking down food received from the esophagus. The tissues of the stomach wall are composed of three types of muscle fibers: circular, longitudinal and oblique. These fibers create structural elasticity and contractibility, both of which are needed for digestion. The stomach mucosa contains cells which secrete hydrochloric acid and this in turn activates the other gastric enzymes pepsin and rennin. To protect itself from being destroyed by its own enzymes, the stomach’s mucous lining must constantly regenerate itself.