liver cancer
Meaning of liver cancer: Liver cancer includes primary tumors starting in the liver itself and, more commonly, secondary tumors that spread there from cancer elsewhere in the body.
Definition of liver cancer
Liver cancer refers to cancer involving the liver, which can arise in two different ways. Primary liver cancer begins within the liver's own cells, most commonly as hepatocellular carcinoma, which arises from hepatocytes, the liver's main functional cells, and often develops in a liver already affected by longstanding disease such as cirrhosis.
A less common type of primary liver cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, arises instead from the cells lining the bile ducts within the liver. Chronic infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus and fatty liver disease are among the recognized contributors to the liver damage that can eventually lead to primary liver cancer.
Secondary liver cancer, also called metastatic liver cancer, is considerably more common overall than primary liver cancer and occurs when cancer that began in another organ, such as the colon, breast, lung, or pancreas, spreads to the liver through the bloodstream.
Used in a sentence
Imaging of the liver identified a mass that required further evaluation to distinguish primary from secondary liver cancer.
Good to know
Secondary liver cancer that has spread from another organ is considerably more common than primary liver cancer arising within the liver itself, an important distinction when interpreting a new liver mass.