What Are the Best Treatment Options for Advanced Liver Cancer?

Hepatocellular cancer (liver cancer) is a major cause of death worldwide, particularly in Asia. According to Turkey’s 2018 cancer statistics, with 4362 new cases annually it is the 15th most common cancer, and with 4307 deaths it is the 9th most common cause of cancer death.

At diagnosis, more than half of patients are known to have inoperable or advanced-stage disease , and 5-year survival across all stages is 18.4% according to US data.

Hepatocellular cancer is an aggressive tumor that generally develops against a background of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. It is typically diagnosed late in its course, and median survival after diagnosis is approximately 6 to 20 months. Although surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment, most patients are not eligible for surgery because of tumor size or underlying liver dysfunction.

The methods used to treat liver cancer are as follows:

• Liver transplantation (early stage)
• Radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation and cryoablation (early stage)
• Percutaneous ethanol or acetic acid ablation (early stage)
• Irreversible electroporation (early stage)
• Transarterial chemoembolization (TAKE) (early stage)
• Transarterial radioembolization (TARE, also known as radioembolization) (early stage)
• Radiation therapy and stereotactic radiation therapy (early stage)
• Cytotoxic agents and molecular targeted therapies as systemic chemotherapy (advanced stage)
• Immunotherapy (advanced stage)
• Combination treatments (immunotherapy and targeted therapies) (advanced stage)

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