Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Your healthcare provider will do a physical exam. They’ll also ask about your medical history, symptoms and lifestyle.

Tests to help confirm a diagnosis include:

• Blood tests: Your provider may check your blood for signs of HCC, like high alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Elevated AFP may signal HCC or a condition that can lead to HCC, like a hepatitis infection or cirrhosis of the liver.
• Imaging scans: Imaging procedures, like an ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or angiography can show tumors (or signs of a tumor) inside your liver.
• Liver biopsy: Your provider may biopsy a liver tumor to test the tissue for cancer cells. You may need this test if your bloodwork results and imaging scans aren’t definitive enough for a diagnosis.

HCC is an unusual cancer because in people with cirrhosis, providers can make the diagnosis based on the tumor(s) having certain features on an MRI or CT scan without needing to do a biopsy.

How is HCC staged?

Cancer staging for HCC allows your healthcare provider to determine how advanced it is. It also helps them plan treatments and determine your prognosis (outlook). To stage HCC, providers consider:

• How big the tumor is.
• How much it’s grown into nearby tissue (including your lymph nodes).
• Whether it’s spread beyond your liver (metastatic cancer).
• How advanced the underlying liver disease is.