Understanding Liver Cancer: What Is it?
From the office of Dr. Laurence Magne, author of www.cancer-free-for-life.com
The liver is the largest internal organ in the body, resting under the right ribs, just below the right lung and diaphragm. It is pyramid shaped and divided into right and left lobes. Unlike other organs in the body, the liver receives blood from two sources. Oxygen rich blood comes in from the hepatic artery while the portal vein brings in nutrient infused blood from the intestines. Due to it’s vital role in the body functions, understanding liver cancer is very important.
The liver plays an important part in removing toxic wastes from the body, as well as secreting bile into the intestines to aid in the absorption of nutrients. Many other nutrients end up being stored in the liver itself. It also produces a lot of the factors necessary for clotting.
As you can see, the liver is an incredibly important and vital part of the body.
Being made up of several different cell types makes the liver, it is susceptible to quite a few different types of tumors. Some of the tumors are cancerous, or malignant, and some of them are non-cancerous, or benign. To learn more about how disease and cancer are started in the body, read Cancer Free For Life.
The treatments for each liver tumor differ for each of the type of cells that form them.
The most common form of benign liver cancer in adults is hepatocellular carcinoma, which begins in the hepatocytes. The hepatocytes are the main type of cell in the liver and hepatocellular carcinoma accounts for approximately seventy-five percent of all primary liver cancer diagnoses.
This form of cancer generally starts in one of two ways. The first begins as a single tumor and later spreads to other parts of the liver. The second, which is typically found in people already suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, begins many different parts of the liver at once. In the United States, this second form is the most common.
A number of subtypes exist in the hepatocellular carcinoma family and identification can be made by a doctor examining the tissue under a microscope.
Another form of liver cancer, Cholangiocarcnimos, makes up approximately ten- to twenty-percent of liver cancer cases. This form begins in the ducts which carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder.
A number of different factors are considered risk factors for liver cancer. Smoking and alcohol consumption are both high on the list, especially when abuse of alcohol leads to cirrhosis of the liver.
Some liver infections, such as Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are strong risk factors as well. These infections tend to be more common in certain portions of the world than others, making liver cancer the most common form of cancer in those areas. Hepatitis A, however, has not been found to be a risk factor for liver cancer.
The specific approach to healing suggested by your physicians will take into account a great deal of information about you and your health. The standard scientific approaches to curing cancer need to be approached carefully, however. Often times, the effects of these treatments are as dangerous as the cancer they are treating, due to the weakening of the immune system. Explore all of your options and make the most intelligent decision possible regarding your individual treatment.
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About the Author
My name is Laurence Magne, Ph D(c). For the past 25 years, I have been involved in the field of health and health research, investigating the reasons why we get sick, and whether we can get well outside of the medical field, using alternative solutions. I have read over 3,000 books on the related topics, counseled many clients and conducted many lectures and trainings.
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