"Looking after your liver is important for everyone."
Posted 17th February 2022
January is well and truly behind us. But whilst many of us commit to ‘dry January’ and a health kick in the New Year, how many of us are sticking to our promises in February and throughout the rest of the year?
Perhaps you’ve committed to moving your body more or maybe you’re introducing more plant-based food to your diet? Whatever the time of year, it’s never too late to start making improvements to your health and one great way of looking after your body is considering your alcohol intake.
A high intake of alcohol can be associated with liver cancer, as well as other types of cancer, including breast, mouth and bowel, lowering the amount of wine, beer or spirits you drink is a great step towards better health, both for your liver and overall.
Here, Professor Daniel Palmer, Consultant Medical Oncologist here at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Liverpool ECMC (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre) Lead, gives his tips on how to care for your liver and the work we’re doing here at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre to support patients with liver cancer.
“Looking after your liver is important for everyone. Whilst liver cancer is often associated with excessive alcohol consumption, much like non-smokers can be diagnosed with lung cancer, liver cancer can affect anyone. In fact, only 7% of liver cancers are cause through drinking alcohol*.
“Maintaining a healthy weight through a balanced diet and plenty of movement is a really important way to care for your liver. Giving up smoking is also important as liver cancer can also be related to smoking.
“Your liver is an essential organ for clearing the blood of particles and infections and destroying toxins. Whilst you can’t live without your liver, many people function well with only half their liver. The liver is also the only organ in the body that can regenerate; for example, patients who have surgery to remove part of their liver can expect it to grow back to normal size within a few weeks.
“Symptoms of liver cancer can include weight loss, a yellowing of the eyes and skin known as jaundice and a swollen, painful abdomen. Targeted treatment for liver cancer aims to shrink the cancerous tumour to slow its growth and can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy – often a combination these”.
“Here at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, we are using interventional radiology to deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver in combination with immunotherapy. TACE-3 is CCC’s first international trial. With £4m funding from BMS, this trial is recruiting across the UK and soon to open in France.”
We’re also using Interventional Radiology to inject cancer treatments directly into the liver of eligible patients with secondary liver cancer, as part of a research trial called Replimune 2. Using CT scans, we can see deep into a patient’s body and use a need to be guided to the exact right spot for the injections.
“It’s a minimally invasive treatment which reduces the risk to the patient. And as it’s so targeted, it keeps normal cells in the body intact, only killing the cancerous cells.
“As well as my role as a consultant at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Liverpool Lead for the ECMC, I’m an academic at the University of Liverpool, researching the latest and most novel ways to treat cancer. Being an academic oncologist provides the perfect balance between science and patient care.”
(*https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/liver-cancer/risks-causes)
