Cancer Institute

Every patient with a liver tumor should be evaluated for surgical resection. Removing the tumor may rid the body of the cancer and prevent further spread to other regions.

Liver resections are being performed for an increasing number of cancer types. The traditional candidates for this procedure include patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors, and colorectal metastases, among others. More recently, patients with other metastatic cancers have been considered for surgery. This controversial subject is still being investigated, and medical centers may differ on which cancers they will resect.

Only those patients who are likely to benefit from resection should undergo a surgical procedure. The ideal candidate for surgery is a patient whose cancer is confined only to the liver. If other methods of treating the cancer outside of the liver-- such as surgery or radiation therapy-- are pursued, removal of the liver tumor may also be considered.

For many types of cancer in the liver, chemotherapy and/or radiation may be administered before or after the surgery. Whether this is necessary will depend on the type of cancer and the results of the pathology report. Our surgeons may work together with your medical oncologist or refer you to one of our own.
A variety of liver resections can be performed. The options range from resection of individual segments to an entire lobe (left or right) or more. Resection of different segments of the liver can permit a surgeon to effectively treat multiple liver tumors. In recent years, we at Allegheny General Hospital have even combined surgery for those tumors that can be resected with sophisticated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for those that cannot. This multi-disciplinary approach allows us to offer hope to patients whose options would have previously been limited.

A CT scan from a patient with hepatic metastasis from colon cancer is shown here. The tumor is delineated by the dark area marked with an arrow. This is in contrast to the light gray color of the surrounding liver.

This patient underwent resection of a segment of the liver, and the next image shows the specimen with a 1 cm. margin of liver tissue surrounding the tumor.

The last photograph shows the liver after the tumor has been removed.

Unfortunately, many patients with liver tumors are not candidates for a resection. Ineligibility may be due to the patient's overall health, the presence of untreatable cancer elsewhere in the body, or the positioning of the tumors within the liver. Such patients may be eligible for other therapies. You can learn more about these options by using the links on our main page.

Please contact our office at 412.359.6738 or 866.680.0004 to learn more about surgical resection of liver tumors at Allegheny General Hospital.