Treatments for Liver Cancer

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Doctor David Cathcart from Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Missouri, and we're going to talk a little bit about liver cancer. Liver cancer, while it can be what's called a primary cancer, which means the cancer actually starts in the liver, is probably more commonly affected by spread from another organ, or where it actually metastasized to the liver. The treatment's very different. If it's a metastatic cancer to the liver, that will be treated one way. If it's a primary cancer in the liver, that's treated quite another way. Most of these cancers are treated by chemotherapy. Chemotherapy agents typically treat cancers by disrupting the replicating process of cancers. So as these cancers are rapidly dividing, the chemotherapy agents, or the chemicals that are toxic to rapidly killing....or rapidly dividing cells, will disrupt those cells ability to divide and they'll die. And unfortunately, chemotherapy also does that to normal, healthy cells. So that's frequently why people will lose...will lose their hair during cancer chemotherapy. But, surgery, while in some cases, particularly for a primary liver cancer, is usually not...is not usually an option for liver cancer. It's primary...chemotherapeutic agents, and another treatment is radiation. Radiation also will kill cells in a different mechanism than chemotherapy, but none the less, they're dead cells. So, but, but, liver cancer is...is very serious. It requires a multi-disciplinary approach from a team of doctors who understand how to treat this...this disorder. Thanks for letting me talk to you about liver cancer today. This is Doctor David Cathcart."