What are the treatments for primary liver cancer

There are no obvious symptoms in the early stage of liver cancer. Generally, when it is discovered more obviously, it is in the late stage, and the treatment is more difficult. Therefore, liver cancer must be treated early. At present, there are many methods for treating liver cancer clinically, and their indications are different, and the effects are also very different. What are the treatment methods for primary liver cancer? The introduction is as follows.

1. Liver transplant surgery

Liver transplantation is the only radical surgical method for treating mid- to late-stage liver cancer. It involves implanting a healthy liver into the patient's body to restore liver function to normal levels. In short, after removing the patient's diseased liver, the donor liver is implanted into the recipient's (patient's) original liver in accordance with the normal anatomical structure of the human body. In the 19 years since liver transplantation was carried out in the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department of the Navy General Hospital, it has successfully brought hope of regeneration to 1,952 patients with advanced liver cancer.

2. Liver resection surgery

Liver resection surgery is a radical treatment for liver cancer patients by Navy hepatobiliary experts. It is still the preferred method for curing early and middle-stage liver cancer in the medical field, both in the past and now. Liver resection surgery is based on the patient's best prognosis. During the operation, necrotic and cancerous tumors in the liver are accurately removed, while minimizing the patient's trauma. The Navy's hepatobiliary surgery department's authoritative liver resection technology has incomparable advantages, including less trauma to patients, complete tumor resection, fast recovery, and fewer postoperative complications.

3. Radiofrequency ablation technology

Radiofrequency ablation is an advanced technology that integrates human and machine operation. It is an interventional technology that accurately locates and causes coagulative necrosis of local cancerous cells to block the spread of liver cancer cells. It causes little damage to other liver tissues and adjacent tissues, so it is more suitable for patients with small liver cancer and multiple liver cancers. The intraoperative trauma is small and the recovery is fast. After the operation, the patient strictly follows the doctor's instructions and observes for a period of time before being discharged from the hospital. This method reduces the pain of liver cancer patients and allows them to return to normal life in a short time.

4. Cellular Immunotherapy

Liver cancer can be treated with cellular immunotherapy, which can stimulate the body's own immune system to inhibit and treat tumors. It can make up for the shortcomings of traditional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. While killing tumor cells, it regulates and restores the body's immune function, kills formed tumor cells, inhibits the formation of new tumor cells, and blocks the source of tumor recurrence and metastasis. It is the best way to treat liver cancer.

5. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy

Radiotherapy is also effective in treating liver cancer. It has begun to reduce the size of the tumor to a certain extent and can alleviate the symptoms of pain. However, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are also very harmful to patients, suppressing the body's immunity and causing damage to human functions. In clinical practice, it is often combined with cellular immunotherapy for comprehensive treatment.

6. Interventional treatment

It includes transcatheter arterial chemotherapy (HAI), transcatheter arterial embolization (HAE) and transcatheter embolization (TACE). Simply giving transcatheter arterial chemotherapy is not enough. Transcatheter embolization is currently the main interventional treatment method. Indications: patients with advanced primary liver cancer who cannot be surgically removed; patients who can be surgically removed but cannot or are unwilling to undergo surgery due to other reasons (such as advanced age, severe liver cirrhosis, etc.). For the above patients, radiological interventional therapy can be used as the first choice of non-surgical treatment.

7. Ablation therapy

It refers to a type of treatment method that directly kills tumors locally under the guidance of imaging technology. Currently, radiofrequency and microwave ablation and anhydrous alcohol injection are the most commonly used. Indications: For single tumors with a diameter of ≤5cm or multiple nodules within 3 with a maximum diameter of ≤3cm, without blood vessel or bile duct invasion or distant metastasis, and early liver cancer patients with liver function of Child-Pugh A or B, radiofrequency or microwave ablation is the best choice other than surgery.

8. Biological therapy and molecular targeted therapy

At present, most biological treatment methods or technologies are still in the stage of research and development and clinical trials, and a small part has been applied in clinical practice. In recent years, molecular targeted drugs for the treatment of liver cancer have become a new research hotspot and have received great attention. They mainly include: anti-EGFR drugs, such as erlotinib and cetuximab; anti-angiogenic drugs, such as bevacizumab and brivanib; signal transduction pathway inhibitors, such as mTOR inhibitor everolimus (RAD001); multi-target inhibitors, such as sorafenib and sunitinib, etc.

9. Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment

It is currently believed that traditional Chinese medicine can be used as an adjuvant treatment for liver cancer, helping to reduce the toxicity of radio and chemotherapy, improving cancer-related symptoms, improving the quality of life, and potentially prolonging survival.