Why does liver cancer recur? What are the examination items for liver cancer?

Why does liver cancer recur after treatment? Whether liver cancer will recur depends on the individual. Not everyone will have a recurrence. If you want to reduce the possibility of liver cancer recurrence, you must first know what causes liver cancer recurrence.

Why does liver cancer recur?

When patients receive surgical treatment, they are already in a relatively advanced stage. The cancer has penetrated the liver, invaded the abdominal cavity and adjacent organs and tissues, or metastasized to distant places through lymphatic tissues. As a result, the tumor tissue cannot be completely removed during surgery, resulting in varying amounts of residual cancer tissue in the abdominal cavity. These patients often experience recurrence soon after surgery.

Incomplete surgery: Some doctors are obsessed with minimizing trauma or their skills are not in place, and they inappropriately reduce the scope of radical resection of liver cancer, resulting in a small amount of tumor tissue remaining or metastatic lymph nodes. If continued treatment is neglected after surgery, tumor recurrence will occur after a period of time.

If liver cancer metastasizes to the lymph nodes, the patient will have symptoms of swollen lymph nodes. When liver cancer metastasizes to the lungs, the patient will often cough, and even gasp for breath and have difficulty breathing. Moreover, patients with recurrent liver cancer not only have poor overall condition, but also have symptoms of anemia, weight loss, low-grade fever, and fatigue.

Liver cancer can metastasize to the bones. Once there is spinal metastasis, the patient will have varying degrees of spinal cauda equina compression symptoms, and even nerve root compression symptoms. The patient will not only have radicular neuralgia, but also a tendency towards decreased sensation. The patient will not only have symptoms of weakened muscle strength, but may even feel paralyzed and even have urinary and bowel dysfunction.

So, what examinations should be done to assist in the treatment of liver cancer?

Liver cancer screening items

Ultrasound examination: B-ultrasound examination is economical and convenient. It can show the size, shape and location of the tumor, and the diagnostic accuracy rate is about 90%. The detection rate of liver lesions is also relatively high. Generally speaking, it takes about 4 to 6 months for liver cancer to grow from 1 cm to 3 cm. Therefore, if the first B-ultrasound liver cancer examination does not show liver cancer, take another examination 4 to 6 months later. The liver cancer should still be below 3 cm, and the treatment effect should be good.

CT: CT is a very important method for liver cancer examination, and it is widely used in China. However, when the diameter of liver cancer is less than 2 cm or the density is close to that of normal liver parenchyma, it is difficult to show it on CT. Liver cancer is a diffuse disease, and it is not easy to detect it on CT; it is difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary liver cancer.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): In liver cancer, T1 and T2 relaxation times are prolonged. In more than half of cases, the tumor shows lower or equal signal intensity than the surrounding liver tissue on T1-weighted images, while it shows high signal intensity on T2-weighted images.

Hepatic artery angiography. Because liver cancer is rich in blood supply, mainly through the hepatic artery, hepatic artery angiography can clearly show the blood supply of small liver lesions and tumors. After a clear diagnosis, iodized oil can be injected to block the tumor supply blood vessels to achieve the purpose of treatment. It is suitable for patients who have not been diagnosed after other examinations. Patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C should have regular checkups, and if possible, they should have a physical examination every year. Liver B-ultrasound is the most basic examination.

In order to reduce the possibility of liver cancer recurrence, active treatment should be carried out.