Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma is a rare type of liver cancer that mainly affects people under 40. Symptoms include feeling unwell, weight loss, and abdominal pain. Treatment involves surgery or chemotherapy, and the prognosis is better than the more common hepatocellular carcinoma.
Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FHCC) is a type of cancer that arises in the liver. It is a relatively rare cancer, which mainly affects people under the age of 40. Symptoms of this type of cancer are not always obvious and can usually include feeling unwell, weight loss, and abdominal pain. This disease is associated with a better outlook than the most common type of liver cancer, known as hepatocellular carcinoma.
A patient with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma is usually treated by an oncology specialist. This type of digestive system neoplasm can manifest itself as a swelling in the abdomen, which can be felt by the doctor. The swelling develops due to the enlargement of the liver due to the developing tumor. While the most common liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, is usually linked to a form of liver damage called cirrhosis, cirrhosis is not normally seen in the liver of people with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.
The most common type of treatment involves surgery to remove part or all of the liver. If the surgeon thinks it is possible to remove the entire tumor by cutting out just a section of the liver, this will be done. Where too much liver is absorbed by the tumor for this to be feasible, the entire organ may be harvested and replaced by a liver donor. This depends on the availability of a suitable donor organ.
A less common treatment, which may be used in patients whose cancers have spread beyond the liver to other parts of the body, is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy involves taking a series of doses of one or a combination of drugs, often given through a drip that feeds into a vein. Sometimes a course of chemotherapy may also be given after surgery to remove the tumor. This is to kill any cancerous cells that may be left after the operation.
Statistics related to the prognosis of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma show that about a third of patients are still alive five years after the cancer diagnosis. This is much better than the outlook for hepatocellular carcinoma, where only about a quarter of patients survive for a year after diagnosis. Doctors aren’t sure whether the difference in prognosis could exist because these patients are generally younger and healthier, as well as their livers typically don’t have cirrhosis.
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