Liver Cancer Essay

Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fist. They're located behind your abdominal organs, one on each side of your spine. Like other major organs in the body, the kidneys can sometimes develop cancer. Your kidneys are part of the urinary system, which removes waste and excess fluid and electrolytes from your blood, controls the production of red blood cells, and regulates your blood pressure. Inside each kidney are more than a million small filtering units called nephrons. As blood circulates through your kidneys, the nephrons filter out waste products as well as unneeded minerals and water. This liquid waste — urine — flows through two narrow tubes (ureters) into your bladder, where it's

8. After surgery, R.T. is admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) with a large

Asian-Americans are people who have origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. In American census of 2000, Asians comprise of roughly 3.6% of the population or 10 million people. By 2050 the population will grow to 36.6 million people. Although Asian American women have the highest life expectancy, they “suffer disproportionately from certain types of cancers, tuberculosis and hepatitis B” (2). Liver cancer cases are relatively low in the United States but highest among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Hepatitis B is a major cause of liver disease. Approximately 1 out of 12 Asian Americans has the chronic version of Hepatitis B. Many do not recognize it before it is too late (1).

Cirrhosis is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States and the thirteenth leading cause of death worldwide.1 Cirrhosis is the irreversible fibrosis of the liver characterized by hepatic architectural distortion secondary to fibrous tissue and the formation of regenerative nodules.2 These anatomical changes cause hepatic vascular resistance and an increase in blood flow leading to portal hypertension. Porto-systemic collaterals develop in order to overcome the increased portal pressure gradient.3 Nitric oxide, an endogenous vasodilator is also released in effort to overcome portal pressure with the expense of causing systemic vasodilation and a decrease in blood pressure. As a result, a marked activation of neurohumoral vasoactive factors occurs in an effort to maintain an effective arterial blood pressure. Hypervolemia, increased cardiac index, decreased systemic vascular resistance, and systemic hypotension are manifestations of portal hypertension.3 Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), alcoholism, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are all major causes of cirrhosis.

According to the American Liver Foundation, a healthy liver cleans blood, fights infection processes food and stores energy. The liver is able to regenerate itself, but when it becomes too damaged or is prevented from regenerating, it will fail and no longer be able to keep able to keep one alive (2015). Despite its ability to regenerate, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis is the twelfth leading cause of death of death in the United States. My interest in further exploring liver related deaths is the due to the impact that liver disease has had on my family. My young cousin was born with a malignant tumor on her liver and spent the first several years of her life undergoing surgeries and chemotherapy. She survived the treatment and at the age of 4 was free of cancer. At the age of 24 she was told that her liver was beginning the process of failure and she would need to be put on the transplant liver for long-term survival. My grandmother died of cirrhosis of the liver and my father, after 3 years of treatment for melanoma, was diagnosed with liver failure. He had a procedure to prolong the useful life of his liver, but the damage to his liver will not allow his liver to regenerate and it will likely be liver failure which leads to his death.

A cancer cell is formed when the cell’s DNA is damaged but not repaired. Instead of the cell dying, like a normal cell, it reproduces new cells which also have the damaged DNA that the original cell had. Factors that can cause a cell to be damaged are mistakes during the reproduction of the cell, environmental reasons, such as smoking or too much sun exposure. The cancer cells form tumors which then invade the tissue of a certain body part, like the breast, lungs, brain, or prostate. Cancer can spread sometimes from body part to body part, but is named from where it starts. For instance, if somebody were to be diagnosed with breast cancer, and developed cancer in their lungs, it would be metastatic lung cancer. Metastasis is how cancer can spread to other body

The MD Anderson Liver Tumor biospecimen resource has been invaluable for a large number of studies or clinical development. The sixth and subsequent editions of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging of hepatocellular cancer, which was developed by an international consortium led by Jean-Nicolas Vauthey, MD, Professor of Surgery at MD Anderson and co-leader on project 2 of the SPORE, was based upon pathologic review of resected specimens in the Liver Tumor Bank (Vauthey JN J Clin Oncol 2002 20:1527-36). In addition, investigators at MD Anderson examined tissues in the Liver Tumor Bank to elucidate the prognostic significance of the ribonucleoprotein Human Antigen R (HuR) showing that patients with high HuR tumor expression had

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asians Americans, and rates vary with age, acculturation and location. The stated differences may represent the influence of environment, such as diet and health habits, and therefore may be modifiable. When it comes to liver and stomach cancer, Asian Americans are tree times more likely to develop liver cancer than non-Hispanic whites and twice as likely to develop liver cancer. In the Chinese, liver cancer is associated with Hepatitis B (precursor to liver disease and cancer) and in whites, liver cancer is primarily associated with alcohol. For colon cancer, it is suggested that diet is related, so is other environmental risk factors. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Chinese

Some people are fortunate enough to have the ability to pay to get proper care. While others are not, as fortunate. Could you image having cancer, and making the decision if you had the time or money to be treated. Many people cannot even begin to fathom about making a choice like that. But Crissy Knibble was put in a situation where she might of have to.

Cancer is the development of faulty cells and is caused by mutations in the DNA of the cell which make it defective. Normal cells have methods to prevent cancer cells from forming, such as tumor suppressor genes but sometimes cancer can bypass these methods and grow out of control, forming tumors. If the cancer cells come into contact with the lymphatic system or circulatory system, it can travel to other parts of the body through them and cause cancer in those areas of the body too. Once the cancer has spread throughout the body it leads to death within a few years as the cancer takes over the healthy cells. Mutations in proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes can cause liver cancer, which can be slowed down with treatments

Liver cancers are malignant tumours that grow inside or on the surface of the liver. They form from the liver or structures inside the liver, for example, blood

Liver cancer is in the top ten for most alarming cancers. It is placed in the abdominal cavity. Also it is placed to the right of the stomach under the diaphragm. A average adult liver receives about two quarts of blood every minute and weighs around three pounds. The biggest glandular organ in the body is the liver and it keeps damaging substances and toxins out of the body. The liver is an critical organ in our body because it stocks vitamins, iron, and sugar glucose. It produces bile which is a substance to digest fats and it destroys old RBC. Also the liver detoxifies the blood to rid it of damaging substances such as drugs and alcohol and breaks down hemoglobin as well as insulin and other hormones. Lastly the liver alters ammonia to urea,

Cancer starts when cells in a body start to grow out of control. Cells in almost any part of the body can become cancer and can spread to other areas of the body. Cancer is challenging in both children and adults and chemotherapy, how the cancer formed in the body, and getting diagnosed are some of the difficult things.

The liver filters the circulating blood that pass through the body, in order to obtain nutrients, remove toxins and waste products from blood, convert drugs to chemicals and many other important function. Due to its function, the liver may get affected by cancer cells if being carried by the blood. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver malignancies, and it also called Malignant Hepatoma1. It is considered one of deadliest malignancies, since it is the third killing cancer worldwide2. This is especially true for the people who live in Asia and Africa; the reason for that is the prevalence of Hepatitis B&C, Which are one of the main risk factors leading to HCC in those regions. Other risk factors include cirrhosis, which

Cirrhosis, the development of scar tissue in the liver, can often result in liver cancer. Additionally, some environmental factors, such as exposure to particular chemicals or eating food contaminated with aflatoxin, a toxin produced by mold on nuts and grains, may raise the risk of cancer. Excessive alcohol and tobacco usage is associated with developing cirrhosis and liver cancer as well. Obesity and diabetes are also risk factors in developing liver cancer. A person can lower their risk of liver cancer by avoiding and treating hepatitis infections, limiting their alcohol and tobacco use and avoiding obesity. Moreover, a person should control their exposure to cancer causing chemicals and make healthy food choices. A person should also treat any inherited liver diseases that could increase their risk of cancer.