Liver metastases are malignant metastases of tumors in other organs. In contrast to liver cancer, they are not a cancerous disease in their own right, but arise from the spread of a so-called primary tumor.
Here you will find further information as well as selected liver metastasis specialists and centers.
Liver metastases can occur when cancer cells detach from a primary tumor and enter the liver via blood vessels. Under favorable conditions, they can settle and grow there. So-called metastases form.
Tumors that can often lead to liver metastases are
In Europe and North America, more people suffer from liver metastases than from liver cancer.
As the liver is an organ with a strong blood supply, cancer cells can enter the liver via several routes. Firstly, they can be transported through the portal vein. Nutrient-rich blood from the digestive organs intestine, oesophagus, pancreas and spleen reaches the liver via the vein.
The location of the liver in the human body, shown here with a tumor © peterschreiber.media | AdobeStock
Secondly, cancer cells can enter the liver from anywhere in the body via the main artery and hepatic artery. This route mainly affects patients with lung cancer and breast cancer, but also patients with other tumors.
Whether a cancer patient has an increased risk of developing liver metastases varies from patient to patient. It depends on specific characteristics of the primary tumor and is difficult to predict.
Due to the anatomical location, patients with tumors of the digestive organs have an increased risk of developing liver metastases. However, it also depends on the stage at which the primary tumor was detected and how quickly it spreads. A general risk assessment is not possible here either.
As with liver cancer, liver metastases initially cause hardly any problems and can grow undetected for a long time without any symptoms. Only at a later stage can
may indicate liver metastases.
Liver metastases are usually discovered during a follow-up of another type of cancer. The development of liver metastases is often an indication that the primary cancer tumor is already advanced.
For the diagnosis of liver metastases, imaging procedures such as
are possible.
MRI machine in a clinic © digitale-fotografien | AdobeStock
The treatment options for liver metastases depend on
Liver metastases from colorectal cancer, for example, can often be treated well with surgery. In some cases, it is even possible to operate on the intestinal tumor and the liver metastases at the same time.
In liver metastasis surgery, the metastases are removed by resecting the tumors plus the surrounding liver tissue. This is only possible if sufficient healthy liver tissue remains to guarantee the vital functions of the liver.
Today, there are various interventional radiological and surgical methods to enlarge the remaining liver tissue. This can make inoperable liver metastases operable after all.
If resection of liver metastases is not possible, alternative methods can be used to try to destroy the metastases. This is done by applying heat to the tip of needles inserted through the skin from the outside.
Alternatively, individual metastases can also be destroyed by focused radiation from the outside. Known methods are
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