Heart attack (myocardial infarction) Beriberi Atypical Moles Lung Parkinson Cervix Warts Pneumonia Paget's disease of bone Osteoporosis Hepatitis Tay-Sachs

Ten Years Later: Liver Cancer Treatment Reevaluated

Source: jnci.oxfordjournals.org
Topic: Liver
Download: Click here!

Sort Desciption: New treatment options for some liver cancers may mean that liver transplants are fading out of style. ...

Content Inside:
New treatment options for some liver cancers may mean that liver transplants are fading out of style.

Ten years ago, JNCI reported that liver transplants were becoming the treatment option of choice for patients diagnosed with an early stage of a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular

carcinoma (HCC) See JNCI, 1996; 88:632-633. . Today some scientists believe that the preferred treatment method is shifting again. They suggest that therapies that destroy tumor cells without surgery could leave more healthy liver tissue intact and reduce the need for transplants.

" What's happening now is that we're in a transition point as to what's the proper therapy for these patients, " said John McVicar, M.D., of the University of California in Davis.

When patients today are diagnosed with HCC, doctors typically remove the tumor. However, even after surgery, pa- tients can develop cancer in other parts of their liver. Around 90% of patients who develop HCC also have cirrhosis, a disease that destroys the liver tissue, and 25% have hepatitis B or C infections. Currently, patients with early-stage HCC are placed high on the priority list for liver transplants. The past 10 years have seen a marked increase in 5-year sur- vival for HCC patients, from 30% in the late 1980s to 60% by 2001, perhaps be- cause of more stringent patient selection.

...

Name (required)

E-mail (required - never shown publicly)

URI (optional)

Your Comment

Verification Code

© 2007-2009 HealthPDF.org | Design by Ganesh Gunasegaran
Privacy Policy

All files and contents mentioned are the property of their respective owners. This page consists of a compilation of public information, commonly available on the internet, at multiple sites, as well as official websites. No information on this page is guaranteed to be correct, and any data contained here may be erroneous.