Liver Tumor Program
The Liver Tumor Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) brings together an exceptional team of providers from multiple disciplines in order to give you personalized care and the most advanced treatment options for all types of liver conditions and diseases, including cancer.
Specialists from the Liver Center, Transplant Institute, Medical Oncology, Radiology, Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Pathology provide a multidisciplinary, comprehensive service for rapidly diagnosing and treating liver tumors. These tumors include primary liver cancer (cancer that starts in the liver), and cancer that has metastasized (or spread) to the liver. Physicians also treat benign masses in the liver that are not cancerous.
BIDMC is a leading hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of liver cancers in New England.
Conditions We Treat
Primary malignant (cancerous) tumors of the liver include:
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which accounts for the majority of liver cancer (carcinoma)
- Cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile duct system, which can occur in the liver from the bile duct cells or in the major duct draining bile from the liver
- Gallbladder carcinoma, an uncommon cancer that may occur anywhere in the gallbladder and frequently invades into the adjacent liver tissue
- Hepatoblastoma, a highly malignant liver tumor that occurs almost exclusively in children less than five years of age, although older children and adults have been diagnosed with this condition as well
We also treat cancer that has metastasized to the liver. Metastases are cancer cells that have spread from an original or primary site to one or more locations or organs elsewhere in the body. For instance, cancer that begins in the colon (primary colon cancer) can metastasize to the liver. The liver is a prime site for metastatic cancer for many reasons. For example, the liver is a common site for metastases from the colon and rectum because the liver receives 80 percent of its blood supply from the portal vein that receives its blood supply draining from the colon and rectum.
The most common primary tumors that cause liver metastases are: lung, colon, pancreas, breast, stomach, ovarian, prostate, gallbladder and cervical cancers.
You can read more about liver cancer – causes, risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention – in the “Your Health” section of our website and at the BIDMC Transplant Institute under “Surgical Diseases of the Liver and Bile Ducts” .
Benign Liver Tumors
We also treat benign (non-cancerous) liver tumors. Benign liver masses include hemangiomas (collection of blood vessels), liver cysts, adenoma and focal nodules. These can all cause symptoms and pain. Benign tumors are also evaluated by our multi-specialty group and we may recommend non-surgical or surgical therapies, including laparoscopic (minimally invasive) resection (removal).
