Treatment for liver cancer

There are things you can do to help you feel more in control of your health when preparing for treatment. This is called prehabilitation or prehab.

Your treatment for liver cancer depends on the stage of your cancer and how well your liver is working. The most common treatments are surgery, heat treatment, drug treatments and radiotherapy. 

Surgery is one of the main treatments for early cancer that started in the liver (primary liver cancer). 

Embolisation is a treatment that blocks or reduces the blood supply to the cancer. You might have it with chemotherapy (TACE) or without chemotherapy (TAE).

Ablation uses heat to destroy cancers. There are 2 types of thermal ablation; radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA). 

Radiotherapy uses high energy waves similar to x-rays to kill cancer cells. Different types of internal and external radiotherapy might be used to treat liver cancer. 

Targeted cancer drugs can shrink an advanced cancer or slow its growth. Find out about how the treatment works, the drugs used and possible side effects.

After treatment for liver cancer you have regular follow up appointments and might need to have some tests.

Research is looking into all aspects of primary liver cancer, including prevention, diagnosis and treatment.