Differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

  1.Secondary liver cancer: Compared with primary liver cancer, secondary liver cancer has slow development and lighter symptoms, most of which are secondary to gastric cancer, followed by lung, colon, pancreas, breast and other cancer foci often metastasized to liver. AFP test is generally negative except for a few cases where the primary cancer is in digestion.  2.Cirrhosis: Liver cancer mostly occurs on the basis of cirrhosis, and it is often difficult to distinguish between them. The differentiation lies in detailed medical history, physical examination and laboratory tests. Cirrhosis is slow to develop and recurrent, liver function damage is more significant, and positive serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) mostly indicates carcinoma.  3.Active liver disease: The following points can help differentiate liver cancer from active liver disease (acute and chronic hepatitis); AFP alpha-fetoprotein test and SGPT ghrelin must be tested at the same time.  4.Hepatic abscess: manifestation of fever, pain in the liver area, manifestation of inflammatory infection symptoms, leukocyte count is often elevated, percussion pain and tenderness in the liver area is obvious, left upper abdominal muscle tension, surrounding chest wall often has edema.  5. Hepatic cavernous hemangioma: This disease is a benign intrahepatic occupying lesion, which is often found by chance due to B-type ultrasound or nuclear scan. The disease is common in China. The differential diagnosis mainly relies on methemoglobin determination, B-type ultrasound and hepatic angiography.  6.Hepatomycosis: The patient has progressive enlargement of the liver, hard texture and nodularity, most of the liver is destroyed in the advanced stage, and the clinical manifestation is very similar to primary liver cancer.