How to prevent liver cancer metastasis? This can prevent liver cancer metastasis

Cancer itself is difficult to treat, especially liver cancer. Once it spreads and metastasizes, the difficulty of treatment increases. From a medical point of view, being able to prevent the spread and metastasis of liver cancer means having a chance to cure liver cancer. Therefore, preventing the spread and metastasis of liver cancer is the most concerned topic in cancer prevention and treatment today. So how to prevent liver cancer metastasis?

The spread and metastasis of liver cancer first occur in the liver. Cancer cells spread directly from the liver through the sinusoids or para-sinusoidal spaces to other parts of the liver. The metastatic foci are distributed in a satellite shape and may also be far away from the primary cancer. This is the earliest and most common way of metastasis. In addition, the portal vein may be invaded and a tumor thrombus may form. If the tumor thrombus falls off in the liver, multiple metastatic foci may occur. Blockage of the main trunk of the portal vein by the tumor thrombus may cause portal hypertension and refractory ascites.

Hematogenous metastasis occurs when cancer cells invade the portal vein and then retrogradely metastasize to the main trunk of the portal vein, forming a cancer thrombus that can affect the internal organs. If cancer cells invade the small branches of the hepatic vein, systemic metastasis will occur, most commonly in the lungs, followed by the bone marrow, and can also metastasize to the kidneys, brain, skin, etc. In addition, due to the occurrence of cancer thrombi in the hepatic vein, it can gradually extend to the inferior vena cava and even to the right heart cavity. When a smaller cancer thrombus falls off to the pulmonary artery, it can cause embolism of the pulmonary arterioles and form pulmonary metastatic lesions.

Lymphatic metastasis mainly spreads to nearby lymph nodes through lymphatic vessels, such as lymph nodes around the portal and hepatic vein, and can also spread to lymph nodes beside the aorta, supraclavicular, membrane, spleen, etc. Regarding extrahepatic metastasis, the incidence of patients with cirrhosis is low, about 30%, while 60%-70% of patients without cirrhosis have extrahepatic metastasis. This situation is not because the biological characteristics of these two types of cancer are different, but that patients with primary liver cancer and cirrhosis have a poor prognosis and a short life span, and do not have time to have extrahepatic metastasis.

Implanted metastatic cancer cells can directly invade adjacent extrahepatic tissues, such as the transverse prostate, gallbladder, stomach, duodenum, pancreas, transverse colon, and inferior vena cava. They can also fall off from the surface of the liver and implant in the abdominal cavity, causing peritoneal metastasis and ascites. In female patients, cancer cells can metastasize to the ovaries.

The main reason for treatment failure and death of liver cancer patients is the metastatic nature of liver cancer cells. Research on the mechanism of tumor metastasis in recent years has found that tumor metastasis is a complex multi-step process in which multiple factors are involved in the regulation of metastasis.