John M. Robertson, MD

This management guide covers the risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis, staging, and treatment of liver, gallbladder, and biliary tract cancers using radiation, surgery, and medical treatment.

Worldwide, hepatocellular carcinoma is the fifth most common malignancy and the third most common cause of cancer mortality. Most patients with hepatocellular carcinoma suffer from cirrhosis primarily caused by alcoholism or chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV); decades may pass between infection with viral hepatitis and development of this cancer. The approximately equal annual incidence and mortality of 1 million reported around the world stands as evidence of its lethality.

Numerous clinical studies suggest that the combination of the fluoropyridimine fluorouracil and radiation is a more effective treatment for many cancers, especially gastrointestinal tumors, than is either modality alone.