The liver has a strong ability to compensate. When the liver is damaged beyond its compensatory range, abnormal liver function may occur.
Abnormal liver function in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma can be caused by the following factors.
Abnormal liver function due to chronic hepatitis
Most patients with liver cancer have hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (hepatitis C virus , HCV) infection. When the hepatitis virus replicates significantly, it destroys liver cells, and abnormal liver function can occur.
If patients with liver cancer have elevated viral copy number HBV-DNA or HCV-RNA, they should be treated aggressively with antiviral therapy, which is also important to reduce liver cancer recurrence and ensure safe liver cancer treatment.
Abnormal liver function due to hepatocellular carcinoma treatment measures
Patients may experience abnormal liver function when receiving surgery, local ablation, interventional, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or even Chinese herbal medicine. They are usually transient and most recover quickly after the end of treatment or liver preservation.
However, some patients are already on the verge of liver failure before treatment, and the risk of severe liver function impairment becomes significantly higher after treatment.
Therefore, physicians will strictly grasp the indications and rationalize the treatment plan before treatment, and patients should be closely followed for liver function during and after treatment.
Abnormal liver function due to tumor progression
Tumor progression may cause abnormal liver function in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma:
- Normal liver tissue is significantly reduced when the liver tumor load is significantly increased;
- Normal liver blood supply is reduced when the portal vein is occluded by cancerous thrombus;
- Normal liver blood return is blocked when the hepatic vein or inferior vena cava is blocked by cancerous thrombus.
In general, when a patient has combined liver failure, he or she is already in the end-stage of liver cancer and should be selected for best supportive care at this time.
When the tumor compresses or blocks the bile duct, the patient may develop abnormal liver function mainly jaundice, and after adequate bile drainage and liver function improves, the best oncologic therapy can still be selected depending on the situation.