Percutaneous ethanol injection for the treatment of early liver cancer

Cochrane: Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. In the majority of people, liver cancer is diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease and is mostly accompanied by liver cirrhosis. In high-income countries, about 30% of people present with the more favourable early liver cancer. For these people, percutaneous ablation techniques (destruction of the cancer cells by heat, cold, or chemical substances such as ethanol), surgical resection (removal of part of the liver), and liver transplantation (which is limited by organ donor shortage) are currently considered potentially curative treatments.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Primary Liver Cancer)

UCSF. US: Primary liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular carcinoma, is a cancer that begins in the liver.. Each year in the United States, approximately 15,000 men and 6,000 women are diagnosed with primary liver cancer.

Genomic Predictors for Recurrence of Liver Cancer

Plos: In a new study,  Ju-Seog Lee and colleagues develop a genetic predictor that can identify patients at high risk for late recurrence of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) and provided new biomarkers for risk stratification.

Alpha-fetoprotein

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is the main protein of fetal serum. It is usually undetectable after birth. Alpha-fetoprotein is produced by the liver and the yolk sac of the fetus, crosses the placenta, enters the amniotic fluid and can also be detected into the maternal blood. It's the main protein during the first three months of development. AFP greatly decreases by age 1 and should only be found  in very low levels in non-pregnant adults.