Bright thinking for liver cancer

Primary liver cancer is very rare in the UK, although we are seeing a rise in diagnoses. Secondary liver cancer is more common – where cancer has spread to the liver from another organ.

Liver cancer has no obvious symptoms, but patients sometimes find the following:

  • the whites of your eyes turning yellow or your skin turning yellow, which may be less obvious on brown or black skin (jaundice) – you may also have itchy skin, darker pee and paler poo than usual
  • loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to
  • feeling tired or having no energy
  • feeling generally unwell or having symptoms like flu
  • a lump in the right side of your tummy

Other symptoms can affect your digestion, such as:

  • feeling or being sick
  • pain at the top right side of your tummy or in your right shoulder
  • symptoms of indigestion, such as feeling full very quickly when eating
  • a very swollen tummy that is not related to when you eat

Source: nhs.uk

You can visit the NHS website or Macmillan to find out more about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

What is liver cancer?

Liver cancer is part of the Hepato-Pacreato-Biliary (HPB) group of cancers. These cancers include:

  • Primary liver cancer (cancer that starts in the liver)
  • Secondary liver cancer (metastatic cancer; cancer which started in another part of the body and has spread to the liver)
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)
  • GI neuroendocrine tumours
  • Gall bladder cancer

Liver cancer research

We’re currently supporting the following research in this area:

The outcomes for pancreatic and liver cancer surgery are collected on two dedicated databases. The hope  is that BRIGHT will support staff to enter patient data  so that the outcomes in terms of survival can be  understood and publicised. The table shows current outcome figures.

Overall survival resulting from surgery for secondary liver cancer at the Royal Surrey:

1 yr 89.4%
3 yrs 61.7%
5 yrs 49.8%

Disease free survival

1 yr 73%
3 yrs 49.5%
5 yrs 42.8%

Survival figures resulting from surgery for secondary liver cancer WORLDWIDE:

5 yrs 25%-50%

Disease free survival

5 yrs 19%-28%

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