Treatments for stage 0 liver cancer
The following are treatment options for stage 0 liver cancer. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Surgery
You may be offered surgery for stage 0 liver cancer.
A liver resection (partial hepatectomy) is used to remove the tumour along with an area of healthy tissue around it (called the surgical margin). It may be offered if you do not have high blood pressure in the portal vein (called portal hypertension), your bilirubin levels are normal and there will be enough healthy liver tissue left after surgery.
A liver transplant may be offered if you have portal hypertension and high bilirubin levels, or if there will not be enough healthy liver tissue left after surgery.
Ablation therapy
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses electrical currents to create heat to destroy cancer cells. You may be offered RFA if you are not healthy enough to have surgery.
Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) is a treatment that injects concentrated ethanol alcohol through a needle into a liver tumour. PEI may be used on tumours near large blood vessels in the liver.
Clinical trials
Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with liver cancer in Canada. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.