Chemotherapy for liver cancer
This page tells you about chemotherapy for liver cancer. There is information on
Chemotherapy for liver cancer
Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer or ‘cytotoxic’ drugs to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be useful to help control the growth of a cancer when surgery is not possible. Some people may have chemotherapy after surgery. This is called adjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of the treatment is to try to kill off any cancer cells that may have been left behind and so help to stop the cancer from coming back.
Apart from children with hepatoblastoma, chemotherapy is not really a standard treatment for primary liver cancer. If you do have chemotherapy, it may be as part of a clinical trial. You may have chemotherapy to treat primary liver cancer as tablets or through a drip into a vein. It is sometimes possible to give chemotherapy directly to the area of the liver that contains the cancer.
Most often, you have chemotherapy as a series of treatments every few weeks. The drugs most often used to treat liver cancer are doxorubicin (Adriamycin), cisplatin, methotrexate, 5FU (fluorouracil) and gemcitabine.
All chemotherapy has side effects. Some people have very few side effects and others have more. The commonest side effects are sickness, diarrhoea, hair loss or thinning, feeling tired and run down, sore mouth or mouth ulcers.
Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer or ‘cytotoxic’ drugs to destroy cancer cells. They work by disrupting the growth of cancer cells. As the drugs circulate in the blood, they can reach cancer cells wherever they are in your body. For more about chemotherapy look at the main chemotherapy section in CancerHelp UK.
Chemotherapy can be useful to help control the growth of a cancer when surgery is not possible. Some people may have chemotherapy after surgery. This is called adjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of the treatment is to try to kill off any cancer cells that may have been left behind and so help to stop the cancer from coming back.
Apart from children with hepatoblastoma, chemotherapy is not really a standard treatment for primary liver cancer. If you do have chemotherapy, it may be as part of a clinical trial. You may have chemotherapy to treat primary liver cancer as tablets or through a drip into a vein.
Another type of treatment gives the drugs directly to the tumour. This is called chemoembolisation. Your specialist may suggest this type of treatment if your liver cancer can't be removed with surgery.
In hepatoblastoma, doctors may give chemotherapy before surgery, to try to shrink a cancer and make it easier to remove. This type of treatment is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy. It may also help to stop the cancer from coming back by killing off any stray cancer cells. Hepatoblastoma is the type of liver cancer that most often affects children. This combination of surgery and chemo is accepted treatment for hepatoblastoma and can often cure it.
Most often, you have chemotherapy as a series of treatments every few weeks. The weeks between treatments allow your body to recover from the side effects of the drugs. A series of treatments (usually around 6 or 8) make up a course of chemotherapy. So a course can take several months to complete.
Some chemotherapy drugs are slowly injected into a vein over about 15 minutes. Others have to be given with a lot of liquid and are given through a drip over a few hours or more.
You may need to have a central line put in. This is a thin, flexible tube that is put into a vein, usually in your chest. It runs under the skin into a large vein. Having a central line means you won't have to have injections or a drip set up each time you have your treatment. The drugs can be injected straight into the tube, or the drip can be connected to it. The tube can stay in for as long as it is needed. Your nurse will show you how to look after it and keep it clean. There is more about central lines, including another type of line called a PICC line in the main chemotherapy section of CancerHelp UK.
The drugs most often used to treat liver cancer are
- Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)
- Cisplatin
- Methotrexate
- 5FU (fluorouracil)
- Gemcitabine
Your doctor may decide to use one or more drugs in combination. Chemotherapy in liver cancer is still being tested. You may well be offered drugs, or combinations of drugs that are not on this list. There is information about the side effects of doxorubicin, cisplatin, methotrexate, 5FU or gemcitabine in the ' cancer drugs' section of CancerHelp UK.
All chemotherapy has side effects. The exact side effects vary from drug to drug. They also vary from person to person. Some people have very few side effects and others have more. It is not possible for your doctor to predict in advance how the treatment will affect you. The most common side effects are
- Sickness
- Diarrhoea
- Hair loss or thinning
- Feeling tired and run down
- Sore mouth or mouth ulcers
For more about chemotherapy look at the main chemotherapy section in CancerHelp UK. It explains the treatment in more detail including
- How it works
- How chemotherapy is planned and given
- General side effects
- Living with chemotherapy
This type of treatment gives the chemotherapy directly to the area of the liver that contains the cancer. Depending on the drugs used, you usually have to stay in hospital overnight or longer to have this treatment. It may be used if you cannot have your tumour removed by surgery.
You have this treatment in the X-ray department. You have a local anaesthetic injection and possibly a mild sedative. The doctor puts a tube called a catheter into the large artery in your groin, called the femoral artery. The doctor can then thread the catheter along the femoral artery until it reaches the hepatic artery that supplies blood to the liver.
The doctor will check that the catheter is in the right place in the liver. Then the chemotherapy is injected into the tube. Doxorubicin is the drug used most often for this type of treatment. The doctor also injects something to block the blood flow to the tumour. This might be tiny plastic beads or a type of gel. Blocking the flow of blood to the cancer helps to kill the cancer cells because it cuts off the tumour's food and oxygen supply. The chemotherapy will also kill liver cancer cells.
Chemoembolisation can cause side effects. You may feel, or be sick. Or you may have some pain or a raised temperature after the treatment. Your doctor will give you painkillers or anti sickness drugs (antiemetics) to control these side effects.
Taking supplements with chemotherapy
There is increasing concern amongst doctors about dietary supplements and herbal medications. We don't know what people with cancer are buying over the counter or getting from alternative and complementary therapy practitioners. There's nothing wrong with trying to help yourself get better, of course. But we don't know enough scientifically about how some supplements may interact with chemo.
You should talk to your specialist about any other tablets or medicines you take while you are having cancer treatment. It may not be a good idea to take anything that claims to boost your immune system, for instance. Some specialists are already telling people with leukaemias that they should avoid these. We just don't know how these supplements may interact with treatment for other types of cancer yet.
There is information about the safety of herbal, vitamin and diet supplements in the complementary therapies section of CancerHelp UK.
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