Surgical treatment of liver cancer

Surgical resection is still the first choice for the treatment of liver cancer. Early treatment is the most important factor in improving the prognosis of liver cancer. Surgical resection should be taken as much as possible for early liver cancer. Early resection is the key to improving survival rate. The smaller the tumor, the higher the 5-year survival rate. Indications for surgery:

1. The diagnosis is clear and the lesion is estimated to be limited to one lobe or half of the liver.

2. No obvious jaundice, ascites or distant metastasis.

3. The liver function compensation is good and the thrombin time is not less than 50%.

4. Those with tolerance of heart, liver and kidney functions.

In patients with normal liver function, the amount of liver resection should not exceed 70%; in patients with moderate cirrhosis, the amount of liver resection should not exceed 50%, or only the left hemihepatectomy can be performed; in patients with severe cirrhosis, liver lobectomy cannot be performed. Because surgery and pathology have confirmed that more than 80% of liver cancers are complicated by cirrhosis, it is generally recognized that local resection replaces regular liver lobectomy, and liver function disorders are alleviated after surgery, and the surgical mortality rate is also reduced. Since radical resection still has a high recurrence rate, AFP and ultrasound imaging should be checked regularly after surgery to monitor recurrence.

Palliative surgical treatment

It is suitable for patients with larger tumors or those scattered or close to large blood vessels, or those with liver cirrhosis that restricts resection. Methods include hepatic artery ligation and/or hepatic artery catheterization chemotherapy, cryosurgery, laser therapy, microwave therapy, intraoperative hepatic artery chemoembolization or intratumoral injection of anhydrous ethanol, etc., which can shrink the tumor and reduce serum AFP, providing an opportunity for a second-step resection.