Nowadays, people are paying more and more attention to their health, and annual medical checkups have become a routine item. The liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen and kidneys are the main abdominal organs without problems, so we can breathe a sigh of relief. However, many patients are particularly worried once something grows on their organs, and the liver is the organ most prone to problems. If something grows on the liver and the diagnosis is not clear for the time being, we call it “occupying lesion of the liver”. Many people come to me with such a diagnosis and ask me if they have liver cancer. There is a lot of psychological pressure and burden. For the liver, does the presence of liver occupancy necessarily mean liver cancer? The answer must be no. Today, we will talk about the common benign and malignant hepatic occupying lesions. Let’s answer your doubts. First of all, let’s take a look at those common benign hepatic occupying lesions. 1. Hepatic hemangioma: Most of the hepatic hemangiomas are spongy hemangiomas, which are our most common benign substantive tumors of the liver. They account for 80% of benign substantive tumors of the liver and are more common in women aged 30-50, with a male to female incidence ratio of about 1:6. They are mostly solitary, slow-growing spongy hemangiomas with a long course. Most of the patients have no obvious symptoms, but when they increase in size, they may experience abdominal pressure and pain. Occasionally, giant hemangiomas may rupture due to trauma and induce hemorrhage. Most small or asymptomatic hemangiomas do not require treatment. Ultrasound or CT monitoring can be done every six months. If the tumor is found to be growing too fast or showing obvious discomfort, you can choose the appropriate treatment according to your condition. For example: radiofrequency ablation, surgery, embolization, etc. Only 10% of patients with hepatic hemangioma need treatment. 2, liver cyst: liver cyst is a common cystic tumor of liver, divided into parasitic and non-parasitic liver cysts. Parasitic ones are more common with hepatic encapsulated cysts. The most common liver cysts in clinical practice are non-parasitic liver cysts. They can be further classified as congenital, traumatic, inflammatory and tumorigenic cysts. What we clinically refer to as hepatic cysts are generally congenital hepatic cysts. Most of them are solitary, more common in women, with a male to female ratio of about 1:4. They are generally slow growing and have a good prognosis. Smaller cysts (<100px) can have no symptoms and generally do not require treatment. It is better to check 1-2 times a year. abdominal pain and abdominal distension may occur when cysts are >125px in diameter. Oversized cysts can cause obstructive jaundice by compressing the bile ducts. For patients with symptomatic, oversized cysts, surgery, anhydrous ethanol injection, and other treatment options are available. These two are the most common benign liver “tumors” in clinical practice, while others include liver abscesses, focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver, hepatic adenomas, and others. These diseases are relatively rare in clinical practice, so I will not list them all. After talking about benign tumors, let’s take a look at malignant occupying lesions that are not so good. 1.Primary liver cancer: We have introduced this one more often, it is one of the 10 tumors with the highest incidence rate in the world, and about half of the liver cancer patients in the world are in China. It mainly includes hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma and mixed carcinoma, of which more than 90% are hepatocellular liver cancer. The incidence rate is about 3:1 between men and women, and the high incidence age in China is 40-50 years old. The disease progresses rapidly, and the symptoms are usually not obvious in the early stage, while symptoms such as pain in the liver area, loss of appetite, abdominal distension, weakness and emaciation, and fever may appear in the middle and late stage. The treatment methods include surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation, liver transplantation, and other adjuvant therapies such as intervention, radiotherapy, targeted therapy and biological therapy. 2.Metastatic liver cancer: liver is a common site of metastasis for solid tumors, and about one-third of the tumors in the whole body can have metastasis to the liver. The most common ones are rectal cancer, gastric cancer and other gastrointestinal tumors, while other cancers such as breast cancer and lung cancer are more common. The size and number of metastases vary. The development of the disease is relatively mild, and it may only have the manifestation of the primary cancer, and the symptoms may be non-specific such as weakness, anorexia and fever. Depending on the disease, surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation, interventional embolization, chemotherapy and other treatments can be performed. Other malignant tumors include fibrous lamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatoblastoma, hepatic sarcoma and so on. The incidence of these tumors is not very high in clinical practice. Don’t worry too much when you get the examination report, just go to hospital for detailed examination, clear diagnosis and active treatment.