There is always research going on in the area of liver cancer. Scientists are looking for the causes of liver cancer, ways to prevent it and to improve treatments. Some believe that vaccinations and better treatments for hepatitis could prevent about half of liver cancer cases worldwide.

Prevention

Researchers are looking at ways to prevent or treat hepatitis before it causes liver cancer. Research is being done to make a vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. Progress is being made in treating chronic hepatitis with drugs that make the patient's immune system stronger.

Detection

Several new blood tests are being studied to see if they can find liver cancer earlier than the test used now. So far none of these has proved more helpful than the ones already in use.

Treatment

New methods of surgery, both to remove the cancer and for transplants, are being studied. For example, doctors are looking at ways to treat and shrink the cancer before surgery. Early results look good, but only a small number of patients have been studied.

Another focus of research involves giving treatment after surgery to reduce the chances that the cancer will return. So far, the results have been mixed.

Doctors are also looking at laparoscopic surgery to treat liver cancer. Small incisions are made in the abdomen and the doctor uses small tools to look at and cut out pieces of the liver that have cancer. Right now, this approach is still an experimental form of treatment for liver cancer.

New methods of giving radiation treatment for liver cancer are also being studied. Researchers are now working on ways to focus radiation only on the cancer, sparing the normal, healthy tissue. One exciting area of research involves putting radioactive substances into the artery that goes to the liver. This way the treatment goes directly to the tumors. Another method uses tiny radioactive glass beads.

Newer forms of chemo combined with other treatments are being tested in clinical trials. New drugs are being developed that target specific points on the cancer cell and kill it. One of these called erlotinib (TarcevaŽ) has shown some benefit in people with advanced liver cancer. Several other targeted drugs are now under study.

Another way researchers are trying to improve chemotherapy is to give it straight into the hepatic artery, which supplies most tumors. The healthy liver then removes most of the remaining drug before it can reach the rest of the body.

While early studies have found that this method works in shrinking a number of tumors, more research is still needed. It may not be useful in all cases because surgery is often neeeded to insert a catheter into the hepatic artery. This is an operation that many liver cancer patients may not be able to handle.

Scientists are learning more about many of the genes that are damaged when normal cells become cancerous. They hope to develop treatments that could replace the DNA of these genes. Clinical trials are in progress to study this type of treatment as well as the side effects and short and long-term results.