Liver cancer—also called hepatocellular carcinoma—is cancer in your liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a primary liver cancer. This means it started in your liver, and so it is made up of liver cells that turned cancerous.
Sometimes people get tumors in their liver that are actually made up of cancer cells that came from a different cancer and traveled to the liver. These tumors are called liver metastases or secondary liver cancer. But the cells are not liver cells. They are cells from the part of your body where you had (or have) a cancer, like breast, lung, or colon. Those cells are now living and growing in the liver.
Unfortunately, liver cancer may not have many symptoms until it is advanced and harder to treat. Hopefully yours was caught early. But either way, the resources on this page can help you learn more about your diagnosis and your treatment options.
Of course, your doctor should be helping you with your decisions. But it can be hard to remember everything your doctor says and come up with questions on the spot. It’s often easier to let your diagnosis sink in and do some research on your own, then discuss what you’ve learned with your doctor.
Liver Cancer Overviews
Overviews are a good way to get a feel for what you may be facing. They give you enough information to be able to ask questions/go looking for more answers.
Liver cancer – hepatocellular carcinoma: This MedlinePlus overview is simple to understand and links to more information about some tests and treatments.
Adult Primary Liver Cancer Treatment: It’s not obvious from the name of this page, but it includes a good description of liver cancer, its stages, symptoms, and tests. It also explains the various treatment options and tells you which options are usually used at which stage of a cancer. This page is from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which also offers a downloadable PDF booklet called What You Need to Know About Liver Cancer.
What is Liver Cancer?: This guide from the American Cancer Society explains the disease and its stages, treatments, and what to expect after treatment.
Organizations Devoted to Liver Cancer
These organizations exist for various reasons: to help promote and/or fund research, help patients and loved ones find support, and/or to educate the public about liver cancer.
Blue Faery (The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association): This non-profit’s stated mission is to “prevent, treat and cure primary liver cancer … through research, education and advocacy.” The organization provides patient education, links to updated Liver Cancer News, and promotes efforts to increase scientific understanding of all areas of this cancer.
International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA): An international organization dedicated to learning more about how liver cancer starts, how to prevent it, and how to treat it better. It offers limited patient information, but it does have a News page, which you may find interesting. If you have a science background, you might be interested in viewing some of the prior year meeting webcasts and links to research papers.
Research into Liver Cancer
Scientists are constantly trying to learn more about liver cancer and how to treat it better. You can read more about liver cancer research and treatment advances on the American Cancer Society’s What’s new in liver cancer research and treatment? page.
When researchers do find a promising treatment, they need volunteers to be part of clinical trials. These studies aren’t for everyone, but if you think you’d like to be part of one, you can see many of the open studies at these links:
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular studies on ClinicalTrials.gov: This search includes only open studies. Most are currently recruiting, but some haven’t started yet. You can also modify the list to find studies in certain locations or for patients of a certain age, among other criteria.
Liver Cancer Clinical Trials on CenterWatch : CenterWatch offers unbiased information and resources about clinical trials. The trial list is organized by state. You can also refine the list by study phase, location, age and/or gender.
Liver cancer trials from The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center : This center is part of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Mayo Clinic Liver Cancer Trials: The Mayo Clinic runs studies at three locations. You can choose to see trials from only one location.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Liver Cancer Clinical Trials: MSKCC runs studies around New York and New Jersey. The center has negotiated special rates with select hotels and long-term stay (temporary apartment) facilities to make it easier for you and your family to stay in New York as needed.
Some trials may appear in more than one list. The ClinicalTrials.gov and CenterWatch lists include studies from a wide variety of research centers. Also, many studies are multi-center trials, so each participating location will probably include it on its list of current trials.
Forums and Support Groups for Liver Cancer
Connecting with other liver cancer patients—who really understand how you’re feeling—can help you feel less alone. Of course family and friends will be your biggest supporters, but they can’t fully understand what you’re going through if they haven’t done so themselves.
See if any of these sites click with you.
Cancer Survivors Network’s Liver Cancer Discussion Board: The Network is run by the American Cancer Society and the liver cancer board looks like it’s moderately active.
American Liver Foundation Support Services: The ALF has a national helpline offering whatever support you need, from answers to your questions to emotional support. offers answers to questions as well as emotional support. The helpline can also help you find a local support group to join. Or you may want to explore the ALF’s online support community on Inspire. You can choose to see only posts specifically about liver cancer.
Liver Cancer Online Community on ACOR: This is a restricted online community that requires registration to see. As a result, we can’t say how active this community is, but ACOR in general has a very good reputation as a place to find support. As of this writing the Liver Cancer group had 251 members.
You can find other support resources on our General Cancer Patient Resources page. They aren’t specific to liver cancer, but most focus on cancers in general.
Other Resources for Liver Cancer
Drug Discount Card from the American Liver Foundation: ALF has partnered with NeedyMeds to offer free Drug Discount Cards for patients with liver disease—including cancer—who can’t afford the medications.
Information For Kids About Liver Cancer
We didn’t find any information geared specifically for kids about liver cancer. However, we list a variety of kid-friendly resources about cancer in general on our Cancer Resources for Teens and Children page. You’ll find helpful guidelines for talking with kids of different ages. There’s also resources and support groups specifically for kids to connect with other kids whose parents have cancer.
Caregiver Resources
Caring for someone with liver cancer can be scary and stressful. Finding support for yourself can help you better care for and support your loved one.
American Liver Foundation Support Services: The ALF national helpline can answer your questions and help you find a local support group to join. You may also want to explore the ALF’s online support community on Inspire. You can choose to see only posts specifically about liver cancer. Posts seem to be from both patients and caregivers.
You may also be interested in more general support services for people caring for cancer patients (not specifically with a liver cancer diagnosis). You can find many more of these on our Cancer Caregiver Resources page.
If you’ve found other resources that have been helpful to you, feel free to leave a comment letting us know about it. We’d love to check it out!