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What is liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC)?
Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) is a cancer arising from the liver. It is also known as primary liver cancer or hepatoma. It is the fifth most common cancer in the world, and it is deadly, killing almost all patients who have it within a year.
The liver is made up of different cell types (for example, liver cells, bile ducts, blood vessels, and scar-forming cells). However, liver cells (hepatocytes) make up 80% of the liver tissue. Thus, the majority of primary liver cancers (over 90 to 95%) arise from liver cells and are called hepatocellular cancer or carcinoma.
When patients or physicians speak of liver cancer, however, they are often referring to cancer that has spread to the liver, having originated in other organs (such as the colon, stomach, pancreas, breast, and lung). More specifically, this type of liver cancer is called metastatic liver cancer or secondary liver cancer. Thus, the term liver cancer actually can refer to either metastatic liver cancer or hepatocellular cancer.
What sort of research is conducted at Westmead Millennium Institute into liver disease?
The Storr Liver Unit (SLU) explores the diverse causes of liver injury, such as metabolic factors and viruses and drugs and toxins.The units long term goals are to improve outcomes for patients with chronic liver diseases by reducing liver injury and fibrosis (scarring) and preventing hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer).
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