Table of Contents
- Overview
- Symptoms
- Treatment
- Prevention
- Images
Hepatocellular carcinoma is cancer of the liver.
Alternative Names
Primary liver cell carcinoma; Tumor - liver; Liver cancer; Cancer - liver
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for most liver cancers. This type of cancer occurs more often in men than women. It is usually seen in people ages 50 - 60.
The disease is more common in parts of Africa and Asia than in North or South America and Europe.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is not the same as
In most cases, the cause of liver cancer is usually scarring of the liver (
- Alcohol abuse (the most common cause in the United States)
- Certain
autoimmune diseases of the liver - Diseases that cause long-term inflammation of the liver
-
Hepatitis B orC virus infection - Too much iron in the body (
hemochromatosis )
Patients with hepatitis B or C are at risk for liver cancer, even if they do not have cirrhosis.
Review Date: 08/09/2009
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of
General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
School of Medicine; and Yi-Bin Chen, MD, Leukemia/Bone Marrow
Transplant Program, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed
by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
