hepatocellular carcinoma
Meaning of hepatocellular carcinoma: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common primary liver cancer, arising directly from liver cells and closely linked to cirrhosis and chronic viral hepatitis.
Definition of hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is a cancer that arises directly from hepatocytes, the main functional cells of the liver, and is the most common type of primary liver cancer, meaning cancer that begins in the liver itself rather than spreading there from another organ. It is a distinct cell type from adenocarcinoma, which arises from gland forming cells rather than hepatocytes.
Hepatocellular carcinoma develops most often in a liver already affected by long standing damage, particularly cirrhosis, a condition marked by extensive scarring, which can result from chronic hepatitis B or C infection, long term heavy alcohol use, or fatty liver disease. This underlying liver damage is present in the great majority of cases.
Because early hepatocellular carcinoma often produces no symptoms, people with cirrhosis or chronic viral hepatitis are commonly monitored periodically with imaging and blood testing to detect a tumor at an earlier, more treatable stage. When symptoms do occur, they can include abdominal pain, unintended weight loss, and jaundice.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
Surveillance imaging in the patient with cirrhosis detected a lesion later confirmed as hepatocellular carcinoma.
Good to know
Hepatocellular carcinoma is a cancer of liver cells and is not a form of adenocarcinoma, which instead arises from gland forming cells, a distinction relevant to how the tumor is classified and treated.
Word origin
Where “hepatocellular carcinoma” comes from
Formed from Greek hepar, hepatos, meaning liver, Latin cellula, meaning small cell, and Greek karkinos, meaning crab, the root of carcinoma, describing a cancer arising from the liver's own cells.