Malignant liver tumor
Liver cancer may be primary or secondary (metastasis from other cancers).
It is a malignant tumor developed at the expense either of liver cells (hepatocellular carcinoma) or bile duct cells (cholangiocarcinoma) or blood vessels (angiosarcoma).
The primary liver cancer was rare in Europe and America, but its frequency is increasing rapidly (5000 cases per year in France) because of the hepatitis C epidemic and is more common in Africa and Asia.
- Hepatocellular carcinoma, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver tumors, and it occurs in 20% of a healthy liver, liver more frequently diagnosed with a pre-existing liver disease (cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis) . Unlike Europe, where alcoholic cirrhosis is the main cause of this type of tumor, in the countries of Africa and Asia, HCC is often linked to hepatitis B and C, sometimes to the pollution of food, including aflatoxin. (more…)
