Liver cancer is the cancer in which the tumor arises in the liver. Cancer is a medical condition in which a group of cells multiply rapidly without any necessity and form a tumor that can affect the entire surroundings and prevent them from properly functioning. Liver cancer is also called as hepatocellular carcinoma.

The liver tissues are composed of many cell types like blood vessels, bile ducts and fat storing cells. It has been observed that from 90 to 95percent of the cancer arises from the liver cells. Many people may think that this is a secondary cancer in which the other organs of the body are the primary location for the cancer but this is wrong. The liver cancer is a metastatic disease where the cancer arises from the liver cells.

Liver cancer is the fifth most common disease among the cancer patients and is the deadliest among all. It kills almost everyone who suffers from this disease within one year of the development of the cancer cells.

What are the risk factors that are associated with liver cancer?

Jaundice infections

There is always a well established relation between the hepatitis B infections and the formation of the cancer cells. It has been confirmed that from many studies that patients suffering from hepatitis b virus infection are at a greater risk of developing liver cancer and males are the more affected than the females.

A leading medical research centre in the United States conducted a test on animals for establishing the relation between the hepatitis b virus infection and liver cancer. The experiment reveals that those animals that are affected from b hepatitis infection, all suffered from liver cancer as a result of those associated b viruses.

Alcohol consumption

Increased consumptions of alcohol may lead to cirrhosis and this has a strong relation towards the triggering of the liver cancer in those people. It has been also observed that many of these cases are also associated with the hepatitis c virus infections.

It is observed that when a person stops his alcoholic consumption for a prolonged period of time, the liver cells start to self heal the damages that has been inflicted up on it. The self healing is a process in which the damaged cells are replaced with new cells and this is the time in which the cells multiply out of control and cause liver cancer.

What are the symptoms associated with liver cancer?

The symptoms of the liver cancer in the beginning stage are quite less and may go unnoticed. In most of the countries, the liver cancer tumor is usually detected in a very advanced stage. Some of the symptoms of liver cancer are swelling in the abdominal area and abdominal pain.