What is the liver?
The liver is the largest organ in our body and weighs about 1.5 kg.
The liver is the largest organ in our body, located in the upper right abdomen and weighing about 1.5 kg. Because most of the liver is under the rib cage and protected by a thorax of ribs, we usually cannot feel or touch it.
The liver has many functions.
The liver has many functions:
- It is responsible for making many different types of proteins, such as various enzymes, hormones, antibodies, and other essential substances.
- The liver also synthesizes glycogen, which is where the body’s initial source of energy comes from.
- The liver is also the body’s “filter”, removing waste and toxins from the blood.
- The liver also produces bile.
- The liver also produces bile, which helps digest ingested fats and is known as the “melting pot” of the body.
What is liver cancer?
The liver is composed primarily of hepatocytes. Cells are the smallest structural units of living things and are the most basic elements that make up the body’s organs. These cells go through the process of “life” to “death”.
In order to meet normal metabolic needs, the body will differentiate new cells to replace the “aging” or “dead” cells. This is a self-regulatory phenomenon, and the process is tightly controlled by the body.
If cells become uncontrolled in the process of differentiation, these uncontrolled cells may become “cancer” cells and keep growing uncontrollably.
In our body, the cells in a particular organ have specific functions, for example, liver cells have many functions, but when normal cells become cancerous, they lose their original functions and gain new ones.
- Acquiring the ability to grow and invade. Cancer cells can grow in the same organ or invade other parts of the same organ or adjacent organs.
- Acquiring the ability to steal blood supply. Cancer cells can get their blood supply from normal tissue or they can form their own new blood supply system that they need for further growth.
- Distant metastasis to other organs or other parts of the body to form new tumors. This process is called liver cancer metastasis.