Hepatocellular carcinoma: Manifestations, diagnostic methods, treatment

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common type of liver cancer today and often occurs in patients with chronic diseases such as alcoholic cirrhosis, cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B, hepatitis C. So cancer How is hepatocyte epithelium expressed?

Hepatocellular carcinoma is becoming more and more common, threatening the health, even the life of patients. To learn more about the disease, the risk factors for the disease as well as the signs of the disease, please refer to the following article right away!

What is hepatocellular carcinoma?

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common cancer in patients with cirrhosis and is more common in areas with high rates of hepatitis B and C. Signs and symptoms are not specific. Diagnosis is based on alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) testing, imaging tools and, more precisely, liver biopsy . As recommended, screening with periodic AFP testing combined with ultrasound is essential for patients at high risk of disease. The disease has a poor prognosis in patients with advanced cancer and impaired liver function.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common primary liver cancers today. According to statistics, there are about 42,230 new cases and up to 30,230 deaths from primary liver cancer. Among them, hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for ¾ of all cases of primary liver cancer. 

The incidence of this disease is 3 times higher in men than in women. The disease is common in countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, with the incidence of HCC close to that of people with chronic hepatitis B infection.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a type of cancer that is extremely dangerous to health

Risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact causes of HCC. However, some groups of people have a higher incidence of this type of cancer than the general population. The following are risk factors that increase your chances of getting HCC. As follows:

• Patients with liver disease, especially cirrhosis: Cirrhosis occurs when liver cells are irreversibly damaged and replaced by fibrous tissue. They are derived from common causes such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol consumption, use of certain drugs.
• Patients with cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B or hepatitis C: Hepatocellular carcinoma can begin after hepatitis. And to determine whether the patient is infected with hepatitis B or C, it is necessary to do a blood test to check.
• People who have a habit of drinking a lot, often: This is also one of the most common causes of cirrhosis as well as hepatocellular carcinoma. Drinking more than 2 glasses of alcohol a day for many years increases the risk of liver cancer. The more alcohol a patient drinks, the higher the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. 
• Overweight and obese people, diabetic patients: These are also two factors that increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. Obesity can cause fatty liver and thereby cause liver cancer. People with diabetes also have an increased risk of liver cancer because high insulin levels in the body lead to liver damage.
• People with excess iron and containing aflatoxin in the body: In patients with too much iron stored in the liver and other organs in the body also increases the risk of liver cancer. Aflatoxin is known to be a toxic substance contained in some molds found in peanuts, corn, nuts, cereals ... also one of the causes of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Cirrhosis is one of the main causes of hepatocellular carcinoma

Manifestations of hepatocellular carcinoma

In the early stages of the disease, the symptoms of the disease are very vague, even the patient does not have any symptoms of HCC. When the cancer has progressed to a later stage, the patient may have one of the following symptoms:

• The patient lost weight rapidly in a short time;
• Feeling of body in a state of fatigue, lethargy;
• Nausea, vomiting;
• Fever;
• Abdominal pain in the right upper quadrant or epigastrium;
• Feeling of a mass in the abdomen or a feeling of heaviness in the epigastrium;
• Abdominal bloating, flatulence;
• May appear jaundice , yellow eyes, yellow urine.

However, all the symptoms mentioned above are for reference only because they can appear in many different diseases. Therefore, when you have one of the above abnormal symptoms, you should not be subjective but should soon go to medical facilities to be examined and accurately diagnosed by a specialist doctor.

Yellow eyes and skin are one of the common symptoms of the disease

Several methods in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma can be diagnosed using a combination of the following methods:

• Liver function blood test: The doctor will order a blood test to check the function of the liver as well as quantify the level of AFP in the patient's blood. Newborns will often have high levels of AFP, but this substance will decrease rapidly soon after birth. And if the patient has high levels of AFP in the blood, this could be a sign of hepatocellular carcinoma.
• Computed tomography (CT - Scanner) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): Imaging methods such as ultrasound, CT or MRI can detect tumors in the liver, size and extent. tumor invasion, thereby providing appropriate treatment.
• Liver biopsy: In some cases, to be more certain of a tumor's malignancy, your doctor will take a small sample of your liver and examine it under a microscope for cancer cells. This technique is performed by removing a piece of liver tissue with a fine needle that has been placed through the skin and inserted into the patient's liver under ultrasound guidance. Before performing this technique, the patient is anesthetized in the sampling area, so there will be no pain during the biopsy.

Methods in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Depending on the location, size, invasiveness of the liver cancer as well as liver function, the patient's current health status, the doctor will choose one or a combination of some of the most suitable methods. for each patient. Commonly used hepatocellular carcinoma treatments today include:

• Surgery;
• Thermodynamic engineering and radiofrequency ablation;
• Radiotherapy;
• Valence;
• Percutaneous ethanol injection;
• Targeted drug therapy;
• Immunotherapy. 

Surgery to remove the tumor is one of the most common treatment methods

However, doctors will rarely prescribe a single treatment, but often combine many different treatment methods to achieve the highest treatment effect for the patient.

Hopefully, the additional article has helped readers better understand hepatocellular carcinoma : Causes, risk factors, manifestations of the disease, diagnostic methods as well as current treatment methods. . If you have any abnormal symptoms, you should go to medical facilities for examination, diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Wish you a lot of health and don't forget to look forward to the next articles of SignsSymptomsList!