Liver Cancer Questions

Would eating less sugar help against my cancer?

Eating less sugar will not help against your cancer and will not starve the cancer. Your body needs sugar to make energy. The link on whether increased sugar causes cancer is still being explored. However, reducing sugar intake while you are have active cancer will unlikely change the progression of the disease.

Is surgery an option?

Each case is different and it depends on how fast the cancer is growing and the risks involved. Surgery may not be an option if surgeons feel that doing surgery will do more harm than good. For example, if a large part of the liver is removed, there may not be enough functioning liver for the patient to survive and the patient may go into liver failure. If the patient doesn’t have good lung function or if their bloodwork has low platelets, surgery may not be a good option because they might not be able to come out of anesthesia or end up bleeding during surgery. If the cancer is growing very quickly, it might not be a good idea to do surgery because surgery may not be able to take all of the cancer out and the cancer will recur. If the cancer involves nearby organs and vessels, the risk might be too high for complications to occur.

What are molecular alterations?

Each cancer patient has an unique molecular profile and cancer. That means, their cancer cells have different gene changes or different levels of certain proteins that can help the cancer cells grow. These changes might also affect how well the cancer responds to certain types of treatment, such as targeted drug therapy and immunotherapy, which work best when the cancer cells have certain features that make them different from normal cells. Some of these differences can be tested for as biomarkers. The differences in the features of cancer cells are the basis for how targeted drugs work. Targeted drugs are often designed to attack cancer cells that have certain gene or protein changes. Biomarker testing - that is, checking a person’s tumor cells for these changes - before treatment can help show if these drugs are likely (or unlikely) to be helpful.

For example, in some types of cancer, people whose cancer cells have certain changes in the FGFR2 mutation can often be helped with targeted drugs known as FGFR2 inhibitors. Biomarker testing can be done before or during treatment to find out if a person’s cancer cells have an FGFR2 mutation or other molecular alterations. This can show if an FGFR2 inhibitor might be helpful in treating their cancer.

What is next generation sequencing?

Next generation sequencing (NGS) is a fast and efficient way to identify the genetic code (DNA) of tissues and tumors. In cancer, it is used to help doctors to identify DNA mutations in tumor cells. Some of these DNA mutations can be targeted with cancer drugs.

What is Y90?

Y-90 are tiny beads filled with radioactive particles that are used to treat tumors in the liver. They are placed into the blood vessels that feed the tumor. Y90 goes straight to the tumor and its radiation kills the tumor cells, while leaving most of the nearby healthy liver tissue unharmed.

What is a biliary stent?

A biliary stent is a tiny tube that doctors place in the bile ducts to help keep the bile ducts open. Bile ducts carry bile (a fluid that helps digest fat) from the liver to the small intestine. Some cancers can block the bile ducts and a biliary stent is used to reopen and keep open the bile ducts.

What is a biliary catheter?

A biliary catheter is a thin, flexible tube that helps drain bile from the liver when the bile ducts are blocked. It is usually placed through the skin into the liver by a doctor using X-ray guidance.