If your doctor suspects you have liver cancer, she will ask you about your full medical history. You will also have to undergo further studies, such as ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, and possibly an angiogram. Your doctor can look at your liver laparoscopically to view tumors, and possibly do a biopsy.
The only way to cure liver cancer is to remove the entire tumor through surgery. If the cancer has metastasized beyond the liver, surgery alone is not an option. Traditional chemotherapy does not usually treat liver cancer effectively, but hepatic artery infusion may be substituted. Using this method, the doctor injects the chemotherapy drugs directly into the artery that supplies blood to the liver. This way, higher doses of the drug will reach the liver. Radiation therapy is not often used for liver cancer because it does not improve survival rates.
