Liver metastases are metastatic liver cancers that form when cancer cells from other organs metastasize to the liver.
Because the liver is double supplied with blood through the hepatic artery and portal vein, the liver is very rich in blood flow and malignant tumors from all organs in general may metastasize to the liver. Many malignant tumors are prone to liver metastases, such as intrahepatic metastases from primary liver cancer and nasty tumors such as colorectal cancer.
Hepatic metastases are generally primary tumors originating from other organs in the body other organs have metastasized to the liver via the blood or lymphatic system. Most common liver metastatic tumors come from the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, pancreas, kidneys, and breast.
Among systemic malignancies, liver metastases have the highest incidence, except for lymph node metastases. Metastatic liver cancer mainly presents as multiple nodules in the liver. Once the tumor metastasizes to the liver, it means that the primary cancer is already advanced and mostly cannot be surgically removed. However, some patients, especially those with metastatic liver cancer originating from colorectum, can be cured by liver resection; if not treated surgically, the average survival time of such patients is usually only about 10 months. Therefore, if liver metastases are diagnosed, surgical resection is the most effective way to treat metastatic liver cancer.