Liver transplants can be performed on cancer patients, but are rare, Busuttil said. Removing the entire tumor surgically is the only way to cure liver cancer. However, if the cancer has spread beyond the liver, surgery is not an option. Surgery also won't work on a very large tumor or if multiple small tumors are growing in different parts of the liver. Radiation is not used often as it doesn't increase survival rates.
Chemotherapy can shrink some tumors, but it also fails to increase survival rates.
Radiofrequency ablation burns the tumors, while cryosurgery freezes them. Neither has been proven yet to increase survival rates. Dr. Pauline Chen, a transplant surgeon and a Dumont-UCLA scientist, is confident the mission is within reach. We're taking what is now known and pushing the envelope. Our multidisciplinary focus will give us added insight into liver cancer.