It is more common in males than in females. The usual symptom is a dull pain in the upper abdomen or swelling of the liver. Sometimes abnormal liver function levels show up on a routine blood test. If this happens, the blood tests are usually repeated. If the results remain elevated,further testing, such as a CT scan or MRI of the liver may be ordered.
Surgery is considered the only useful treatment for liver cancer.
Removal of one part of the organ is called resection. When just part of the liver is removed, there is a good chance the cancer may recur. If the cancer is a small primary liver cancer, confined to the liver, liver transplant is rarely used. Following a liver transplant, there is no guarantee that the cancer will not recur, and transplantation has its own complications. If the cancer started in another organ and moved to the liver, liver resection is not generally very effective.