Liver Tumor Program
The Liver Tumor Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center brings together an exceptional team of providers from multiple disciplines in order to provide personalized care and the most advanced treatment options for all types of liver conditions and diseases, including cancer.
Specialists from the Liver Program, Transplant Institute, Medical Oncology, Radiology, Interventional Radiology, Pathology, and Radiation Oncology 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 provider of care for liver cancers in New England. Our physicians are active members in the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees liver transplantation for liver cancer, and Michael P. Curry, MD, transplant hepatologist, is a UNOS regional representative. Drs. Curry and Rebecca A. Miksad, medical oncologist, participated in the 2008 UNOS HCC Consensus Conference to develop consensus on the best HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer) treatments. Dr. Miksad also took part in the 2008 National Institutes of Health HCC State-of-the-Art Conference to establish national research priorities, and participates on the NIH Hepatobiliary Task Force.
Conditions We Treat
The Liver Tumor Program provides multidisciplinary treatment of hepatobiliary tumors including:
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which accounts for the majority of liver cancer (carcinoma)
- Cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile duct system, which can arise 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 arise 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 the blood draining from the colon and rectum.
The most common primary tumors that cause liver metastases are: lung, colon, pancreas, breast, stomach, ovary, 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 under “Surgical Diseases of the Liver and Bile Ducts” in the BIDMC Transplant Institute.
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 multispecialty group and we may recommend non-surgical or surgical therapies, including laparoscopic (minimally invasive) resection (removal).
